5  £ 


/Iftofcern  Hmerican  Speaker 


FOR 


SCHOOL  AND  COLLEGE  STUDENTS,  LAWYERS,  PREACHERS, 

TEACHERS  AND  ALL  INTERESTED  IN  THE 

A.RT  OF  PUBLIC  SPEAKING. 


BY 


in  HHiBois  Sburter,  pb.  JB. 

8  OK  OT  ORATORY  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  TKXAB,  FORMERLY  INSTRUCTOR 
IK   BNGLIBH  AN))   ELOCUTION  AT  STANFORD  UXIVBRBITT  AND 
INSTRUCTOR    IN    ELOCUTION    AND    ORATORY 
AT   CORNELL   UNIVERSITY. 


PUBLISHED    BY 


Gammel  Booh  Company 

AUSTIN,   TEXAS 

1901 


COPYRIGHTED 
BY 

H.  P.  N.  GAMMEL. 


PBEFACE. 


The  selections  in  this  volume  have  been  collected  during  the 
past  seven  years  while  the  compiler  has  been  engaged  in  instructing 
college  students  along  the  lines  of  public  speaking. 

Despite  the  deep-seated  and  perhaps  well-founded  prejudice 
among  educators  against  so-called  "elocution,"  it  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  some  sort  of  training  in  public  speech  should  be  afforded 
students  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  as  a  preparation  for 
professional  life  and  the  duties  of  citizenship.  In  the  earlier  stages 
cTthe  training  of  the  young  speaker,  practice  in  giving  expression  to 
another's  thought  has  its  value,  if  directed  along  right  lines.  It 
jshould  be  thought  adapted  for  presentation  to  a  present  audience, 
and  hence  on  a  subject  of  present  interest.  This  need  has  furnished" 
the  controlling  principle  in  making  the  selections  herein,  culled  from 
a  large  mass  of  material.  Some  "old  favorites"  are  included  for 
purposes  of  ready  reference  and  class  drill;  but  the  selections  are  for 
the  most  part  from  the  productions  of  writers  and  speakers  of  the 
present  generation,  and  on  subjects  of  present  interest  and  import- 
ance. A  very  large  portion  of  the  selections  have  never  before  been 
published  in  any  "Speaker."  Some  partisan  speeches  are  included, 
but  an  effort  has  been  made  to  give  each  side  an  approximately 
equal  representation. 

While  it  would  be  impossible  to  include  in  a  single  volume 
selections  from  all  the  prominent  American  speakers  of  to-day,  still 
it  is  believed  that  the  selections  herein  are  fairly  representative,  and 
will  furnish  suggestive  examples  in  the  study  of  present  day  oratory. 
When  used  for  declaiming,  most  of  the  selections  will  not  require 
more  than  five  minutes  in  delivery;  and  by  the  omission  of  a  para- 
graph or  two,  when  required,  they  can  all  be  brought  within  such 
time  limit. 

In  communicating  the  thought  contained  in  another's  words,  the 
student  should  attempt  to  discover  and  employ  the  elements  of 
power  which  have  made  so  many  of  the  speeches  and  addresses 
herein  represented  a  commanding  influence  in  our  national  and  civic 


DEFACE. 


life.  In  the  earlier  VfJorts  of  the  young  speaker,  the  work  of  the 
teacher  is  largely  that  of  aiding  the  student  to  discover  and  develop 
his  own  powers.  The  student  must  realize  that  to  convince  the  under- 
standing, he  must  himself  understand  what  he  is  speaking;  to  arouse 
the  emotions,  such  emotions  must  be  aroused  within  him  at  the 
moment  of  delivery;  that  to  accomplish  this,  he  must  "bound  the 
thought,"  as  Lincoln  said  of  his  own  method,  "north,  east,  south  and 
west."  He  should  carefully  analyze  and  interpret  the  selection  for 
himself,  assimilating  and  adopting  the  thoughts  as  his  own,  and 
speak  them  as  he  himself  would  utter  thoughts  which  he  thoroughly 
comprehends  and  believes,  and  of  the  truth  of  which  he  intends  to 
convince  his  hearers. 

Selections  from  others'  writings  and  speeches,  studied  and 
delivered  in  this  manner,  can  be  made  most  serviceable,  even  for 
college  students,  in  cultivating  a  natural,  direct  and  forcible  delivery, 
and  in  thus  laying  the  foundation  for  subsequent  training  in  oratory, 
debating  and  extempore  speaking. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  following  for  per- 
mission to  use  selections  indicated:  to  Col.  Henry  Watterson,  for  the 
selections  from  his  oration  on  Lincoln;  to  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Grady,  for 
the  selections  from  Mr.  Grady's  speeches;  to  Hon.  Chauncey  M. 
Depew,  for  the  selections  from  his  speeches  and  orations;  to  Hough- 
ton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  for  the  selections  from  the  works  of  Emerson, 
Longfellow  and  Lowell;  to  Harper  Brothers  &  Co.,  for  the  selections 
from  the  orations  and  addresses  of  Curtis;  to  Small,  Maynard  &  Co., 
for  the  selections  from  Booker  T.  Washington's  "The  Future  of  the 
Southern  Negro;"  and  to  Messrs.  Lee  &  Shepard,  for  the  selections 
from  speeches  and  addresses  of  Wendell  Phillips.  The  sources  of 
other  selections,  when  ascertainable,  are  noted  in  the  text. 

For  the  copies  of  some  of  the  selections  I  am  indebted  to  my 
former  students  at  Cornell  and  Texas  Universities.  My  thanks  are 
especially  due  to  Professor  Duncan  Campbell  Lee,  Head  of  the 
Department  of  Oratory  at  Cornell  University,  for  the  loan  of  copies 
of  certain  selections;  and  to  Herrick  Cleveland  Allen,  Assistant 
Professor  of  Public  Speaking  at  the  Ohio  State  University,  for 
valuable  suggestions  in  compiling  and  arranging. 


EDWIN  DU  BOIS  SHURTER. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS, 

January  1,  1901. 


CONTEXTS  WITH  IXDEX  OF  AUTHjOIlS 
A:NTD  SPEAKERS. 


PAGE. 

DR.  LYMAN  ABBOTT:    Out  of  the  Past 38,39 

Our  Government's  Real  Peril 144, 145 

The  Law  of  Service 271-273 

FELIX  ADLER:     Materialism 180, 181 

JOSEPH  WELDON  BAILEY:    Colonies  and  the  Constitution..       40,41 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER:    The  Cynic 176>  177 

ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE:    The  Philippine  Question 60-63 

The  Value  and  Danger  of  Precedents  in  Politics 309-311 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE  :    The  Death  of  Garfield 182, 183 

DAVID  J.  BREWER:     Combination  of  Capital  and  Consolida- 
tion of  Labor 131, 132 

JOHN  BRIGHT:    An  Appeal  to  the  People 214, 215 

EDWARD  BROOKS :    Success 184, 185 

WILLIAM  J.  BRYAN:     Bimetallism  21-23 

Trusts 24,  25 

Imperialism 73-75 

GUY  M.  BRYAN:     The  Child  of  the  Alamo ...364,365 

THOMAS  CARLYLE:    Await  the  Issue 186, 187 

HAMPTON  L.  CARSON:    American  Liberty 302,  303 

HORACE  CHILTON:     Eulogy  of  Hon.  Isham  G.  Harris 188, 189 

RUFUS  CHOATE:    The  Conservative  Force  of  the  American 

Bar 190, 191 

CHAMP  CLARK:    Frank  P.  Blair 207-209 

HENRY  CLAY:    The  Greek  Revolution 327, 328 

GROVER  CLEVELAND:    Education  and  the  Self-made  Man..  220-222 

C.  A.  CULBERSON:    Territorial  Expansion 35-37 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS:    Eloquence  of  Wendell  Phillips      16, 17 

The  Minute  Man  of  the  Revolution 102, 103 

The  Public  Duty  of  Educated  Men 107, 108 

Nations  and  Humanity 103, 104 

The  English  Puritan 105, 106 

The  Greatness  of  the  Poet 106. 107 

JOHN  W.  DANIEL:  Robert  E.  Lee  and  the  Civil  War 156-158 

A  Follower  of  Lee 158, 159 

A  Typical  Hero 159, 160 

CUSHMAN  K.  DAVIS:  On  the  Pullman  Strike 210, 211 

The  "Open  Door"  Policy  in  China 84,  35 

The  Treaty  of  Paris  and  the  Eastern  Question 31-33 

D.  A.  DEARMOND:     Expand  at  Home  and  not  in  the  Philip- 

pines         28, 29 


b  CONTENTS  AND  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW:    The  Place  of  Athletics  in  College 

Life 211-213 

The  Lawyer  and  Free  Institutions 213, 214 

Two  Spies 193, 194 

The  Philosophy  of  Happiness 195, 196 

BISHOP  DOANE:     Our  Duty  Towards  "Imperialism" 29-31 

CHARLES  WM.  ELIOT:    Expert  Knowledge 196-198 

L.  B.  ELLIS:    United  States  and  Cuba 335,  336 

ROBERT  EMMETT:    Emmett's  Defense 336, 337 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON:    Eloquence 12, 13 

Self  Reliance 198, 199 

EDWARD  EVERETT:     Foundation  of  National  Character 200,  201 

W.  J.  Fox :     The  Influence  of  Greek  Civilization 201 

WILLIAM  P.  FRYE:     Expansion 26,27 

The  Protection  of  American  Citizens 202, 203 

T.  W.  GREGORY:     A  University  of  the  First  Class 203-205 

JOHN  B.  GOUGH:     Building  the  Temple 205-207 

What  Is  a  Minority? 317,318 

HENRY  W.GRADY:    the  New  South 87,88 

The  Typical  American 89,  90 

The  Old  South  and  the  New 90-92 

The  University  the  Training  Camp  of  the  Future 92,  93 

Centralization  in  the  United  States 93,  94 

The  Southern  Negro 94-96 

The  Home  and  the  Republic 96,  97 

The  Negro  Vote  in  the  South 164, 165 

The  Stricken  South 97-99 

JOHN  TEMPLE  GRAVES:    Eulogy  on  Grady 100, 101 

GRIMKE:     Duty  of  Literary  Men  to  America 346,347 

C.  H.  GROSVENOR:    On  the  $50,000,000  Appropriation 360,361 

ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY:     Political  Education 216-218 

D.  M.  HARRIS:     The  Education  of  the  Eye 298 

A.  HARRINGTON:     "  Enthusiasm" 348,349 

MARSHALL  HICKS:    The  Relation  of  the  University  Man  to 

the  State , 128-130 

DR.  EMILHIRSCH:  Modern  War  is  Unworthy  of  Civilization  268,269 

ROSWELL  D.  HITCHCOCK:  True  Greatness  ' 291,  292 

GEORGE  F.  HOAR:  The  Conquest  of  the  Philippines 63-65 

A  United  Country 172, 173 

SAM  HOUSTON:  Union  vs.  Disunion 224,  225 

"When  the  Texan  Guards  the  Camp" 225, 226 

CLARK  HOWELL:  "The  Man  with  His  Hat  in  His  Hand". . .  296-298 

ARTHUR  HOYT:  German  Unity 226, 227 

ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL:  "A  Plumed  Knight" 228, 229 

Happiness  and  Liberty 229-231 

JEROME  K.  JEROME:  Lumber  on  the  Voyage  of  Life 232,233 

Ambition 124, 125 

On  Being  Hard  Up 321,322 

HERRICK  JOHNSON:  The  Sunday  Newspaper 343-345 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN:  The  Nation's  Need  of  Men 287, 288 

"  Lest  We  Forget " 50-52 

The  Quest  for  Unearned  Happiness 233,235 


CONTENTS   AND   INDEX.  7 

PAGE. 

CHARLES  B.  LANDIS:    Arraignment  of  Mormonism 236,237 

S.  W.  T.  LANHAM:     Fraternalism  vs.  Sectionalism 170, 171 

The  Need  of  a  Uniform  Bankruptcy  Law 292-294 

Our  Policy  Toward  Porto  Rico 55,  56 

MARY  T.  LATHROP:    Genuine  Reforms, .. 331,332 

LEO  N.  LEVI:     The  Independent  Voter 76,77 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN:    Dedication  of  the  Gettysburg  Battle 

Field 155 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE:    The   Great   Peril  of  Unrestricted 

Immigration 237-239 

Notification  Speech 66-68 

The  Blue  and  the  Gray 329,  330 

L.  G.  LONG:     The  Power  of  Ideas 126, 127 

HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW:     Fame 121-123 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL:    Democracy 119-121 

The  Independent  in  Politics 78,79 

WILLIAM  E.  MASON:     Liberty  for  the  Filipinos 56-58 

MACAULAY:     Burke's  Impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings. ..  356V357 

PRESIDENT  MCKINLEY:     National  Perpetuity' 289 

Acceptance  Speech 68-70 

General  Grant 161, 162 

Reply  to  the  Notification  Committee 

BENTON  MCMILLAN:     On  the  Appropriation  for  the  Spanish 

War 239-241 

JOHN  R.  MOTT:    Time  for  Bible  Study 258,  259 

CLARENCE  N.  OUSLEY:     Man's  Responsibility  to  the  Higher 

Law 285, 286 

C.  H.  PARKHURST:      The  Corruption  of  Municipal  Govern- 
ment   341-343 

EDWARD  J.  PHELPS:    Chief  Justice  Marshall 330,331 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS:    Eloquence  of  Daniel  O'Connell 13-16 

The  Statesmanship  of  Daniel  O'Connell 80, 81 

Revolutions 81,  82 

The  Scholar  in  a  Republic 83,  84 

The  Old  South  Church 312,313 

Character  Essential  for  a  Great  Lawyer    85, 86 

HORACE  PORTER:     "The  Soldier's  Last  Salute'' 162,163 

T.  J.  POWELL:     Men  and  Memories  of  the  Southland 241-243 

WILLIAM  L.  PRATHER:    Education  and  Character 218-220 

National  Unity  and  the  State  University 173-175 

Texas  and  the  Texans 244, 245 

GEORGE  PRENTICE:    Immortality 311, 312 

SERGEANT  S.  PRENTISS  :    Jury  Plea 340, 341 

CHARLES  READE  :    The  Lark  in  the  Gold  Fields 246, 247 

JAMES  D.  RICHARDSON:     Speech  on  Notifying  Mr.  Bryan. .       71-73 

FREDERICK  W.  ROBERTSON:    The  Poetry  of  War . . . .' 266, 267 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT:    The   Doctrine  of  the   Strenuous 

Life  ...    247,  248 

Individual  and  National  Character 137 

Our  Duty  to  the  Filipinos 58, 59 

Clean  Politics 248,249 

The  Proper  Attitude  of  the  State  Towards  Wealth 250,251 

Americanism 299, 300 


CONTENTS   AND   INDEX 

PAGE. 

JOHN  RUSKIN:     Preface  to  the  Crown  of  Wild  Olive 320 

JACOB  GOULD  SCHURMAN:    Expansion 48, 49 

Our  Foreign  Element 251-253 

Competition  ...    , 253-255 

CARL  SCHURZ:    The  Confederate  Battle  Flags 255, 256 

The  Negro  in  Politics 166, 167 

National  Honor 146, 147 

D.  C.  SCOVILLE  :     Truth  and  Victory 256, 257 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD:     Eulogy  on  O'Connell 259-261 

Jury  Plea 261-263 

C.  C.  SMITH:     A  Plea  for  the  Southern  Negro 315,316 

CHARLES  EMORY  SMITH:     Patriotism  of  the  Public  Press...  362,363 

ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS:    Energy 263, 264 

M.  WOOLSEY  STRYKER:  .Abraham  Lincoln  .    148, 149 

WILLIAM  SULZER:    The  Nicaragua  Canal 264-266 

CHARLES  SUMNER:     "Time" 294,295 

The  Victories  of  Peace 270, 271 

T.  DEWITT  TALMADGE:     The  Duty  of  Christian  Citizenship  273-275 

Suffering  for  Others " 333,  334 

HARRY  L.  TAYLOR:     Intercollegiate  Athletics ,   117-119 

JOHN  M.  THURSTON:     The  Venezuelan  Boundary  Dispute. .  275-277 

Cuba  and  Spain 353, 354 

CHARLES  F.  THWING:    The  College  Type  of  Religion 303-305 

College  Rebellions 305-307 

B.  R.  TILLMAN:     Bimetallism  or  Industrial  Slavery 44, 45 

THEODORE  TILTON:     Free  Speech 18, 19 

MARK  TWAIN:    Coyote. . . 314, 315 

HENRY  J.  VAN  DYKE:     Ancestral  Ideals 138, 139 

G.  G.  VEST:     No  Colonies 42,43 

DANIEL  W.  VOORHEES:    Over  Protected  Farmers 133, 134 

PRINCE  WALKONSKY:    Toast  to  the  American  Flag 290,291 

CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER:    Pursuit  of  Happiness 308,  309 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON:     The  Negro  in  the  South 168, 169 

HENRY  L.  WATTERSON:     Expansion 46,  47 

Abraham  Lincoln 150, 151 

The  Lincoln-Douglass  Debate 152-154 

A  Retrospect  of  Lincoln's  Life 318,319 

The  New  Union 326 

DANIEL  WEBSTER:     Eloquence 11 

Crime  Its  Own  Detecter 277-279 

American  Citizenship 355 

CHARLES    EMORY    WEDDINGTON:      The    Mission    of   the 

Anglo-Saxon 53,  54 

BENJAMIN  IDE  WHEELER:     The  American  Student  Type  . .   115-117 

KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN:    Life  and  Love 280, 281 

GEORGE  T.  WINSTON:    Education  in  the  South 191-193 

WILLIAM  WIRT :     Decisive  Integrity 358, 359 

W.  S.  WITHAM:     A  Righteous  War 301 

JOHN  D.  WRIGHT:    The  Orator's  Cause 351, 352 

DUDLEY  G.  WOOTEN:     Individualism  vs.  Centralization. . . .  142, 143 
Eulogy  of  Texas  Veterans 114, 115 


CONTENTS    AND    INDEX.  9 

PAGE. 

ANONYMOUS  AND  ADAPTED:     Sam   Houston  and  the   Civil 

War 112, 113 

The  National  Flag 110,  111 

"  Chinese  "  Gordon 281, 282 

The  "Progressive  Populists" 178, 179 

The  English  Speaking  Race 282, 283 

Campaign  Oratory 20, 21 

The  Victor  of  Marengo 108-110 

A  Great  Man  of  Business 222,  223 

The  Old  Constitution 140, 141 

The  Professional  Spoilsman 135, 136 

A  Southern  Court  Scene 283, 284 

The  Maiden  Speech  of  Wendell  Phillips 322-324 

Shall  the  Declaration  of  Independence  be  Re-Asserted?  324-326 

The  Iron  Will  of  Andrew  Jackson 

Against  Whipping  in  the  Navy 338, 339 

Preservation  of  Forests , 349,350 


MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

ELOQUENCE. 

DANIEL    WEBSTER. 
(From    his    oration    on    Adams    and   Jefferson.) 

When  public  bodies  are  to  be  addressed  on  momentous 
occasions,  when  great  interests  are  at  stake  and  strong  pas- 
sions excited,  nothing  is  valuable  in  speech,  further  than 
as  it  is  connected  with  high  intellectual  and  moral  endow- 
ments. Clearness,  force,  and  earnestness  are  the  qualities 
which  produce  conviction. 

True  eloquence,  indeed,  does  not  consist  in  speech.  It  can- 
not be  brought  from  far.  Labor  and  learning  may  toil  for 
it,  but  they  will  toil  in  vain.  Words  and  phrases  may  be 
marshalled  in  every  way,  but  they  cannot  compass  it.  It 
must  exist  in  the  man,  in  the  subject,  and  in  the  occasion. 
Affected  passion,  intense  expression,  the  pomp  of  declama- 
tion, all  may  aspire  after  it;  they  cannot  reach  it.  It  conies, 
if  it  come  at  all,  like  the  outbreak  of  a  fountain  from  the 
earth,  or  the  bursting  forth  of  volcanic  fires,  with  spontane- 
ous, original,  native  force. 

The  graces  taught  in  the  schools,  the  costly  ornaments  and 
studied  contrivances  of  speech,  shock  and  disgust  men,  when 
their  own  lives,  and  the  fate  of  their  wives,  their  children, 
and  their  country  hang  on  the  decision  of  the  hour.  Then 
words  have  lost  their  power,  rhetoric  is  vain,  and  all  elab- 
orate oratory  contemptible.  Even  genius  itself  then  feels 
rebuked  and  subdued,  as  in  the  presence  of  higher  qualities. 
Then  patriotism  is  eloquent;  then  self-devotion  is  eloquent. 
The  clear  conception  outrunning  the  deductions  of  logic, 
the  high  purpose,  the  firm  resolve,  the  dauntless  spirit, 
speaking  on  the  tongue,  beaming  from  the  eye,  informing 
every  feature,  and  urging  the  whole  man  onward,  right  on- 
ward to  his  object— this,  this  is  eloquence;  or,  rather,  it  is 
something  greater  and  higher  than  all  eloquence;  it  is  action, 
noble,  sublime,  God-like  action. 


.;  "  \  ^MODERX  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 
ELOQUENCE. 


RALPH    WALDO   EMERSON. 

(By  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  authorized  publishers 
of  the  Works  of  Emerson.) 

Statement,  method,  imagery,  selection,  tenacity  of  mem- 
ory, power  of  dealing  with  facts,  rapid  generalization,  humor, 
pathos,  are  keys  which  the  orator  holds;  and  yet  these  fine 
gifts  are  not  eloquence,  and  do  often  hinder  a  man's  attain- 
ment of  it.  And  if  we  come  to  the  heart  of  the  mystery, 
perhaps  we  should  say  that  the  truly  eloquent  man  is 
a  sane  man  with  power  to  communicate  his  sanity.  (Peo- 
ple always  perceive  whether  you  drive  or  whether  the 
horses  take  the  bits  in  their  teeth  and  run.)  There  is  for 
every  man  a  statement  possible  of  that  truth  which  he  is 
most  unwilling  to  receive — a  statement  possible,  so  broad 
and  so  pungent  that  he  cannot  get  away  from  it,  but  must 
either  bend  to  it  or  die  of  it.  Else  there  would  be  no 
such  word  as  eloquence,  which  means  this.  The  listener 
cannot  hide  from  himself  that  something  has  been  shown 
him  and  the  whole  world  which  he  did  not  wish  to  see;  ana, 
a-3  he  cannot  dispose  of  it,  it  disposes  of  him. 

Eloquence  must  be  grounded  on  the  plainest  narrative. 
Afterwards,  it  may  warm  itself  until  it  exhales  symbols  of 
every  kind  and  color,  speaks  only  through  the  most  poetic 
forms;  but,  first  and  last,  it  must  still  be  at  bottom  a  bib- 
lical statement  of  fact.  The  orator  is  thereby  an  orator,  that 
he  keeps  his  feet  ever  on  a  fact.  Thus  only  is  he  invincible. 
No  gifts,  no  power  of  wit  or  learning  or  illustration,  will 
make  any  amends  for  want  of  this.  All  audiences  are  just 
to  this  point.  Fame  of  voice  or  of  rhetoric  will  carry  people 
a  few  times  to  hear  a  speaker;  but  they  soon  begin  to  ask, 
"What  is  he  driving  at?"  and  if  this  man  does  not  stand 
for  anything,  he  will  be  deserted.  A  good  upholder  of  any- 
thing which  they  believe,  a  fact-speaker  of  any  kind,  they  will 
long  follow;  but  a  pause  in  the  speaker's  own  character  is 
very  properly  a  loss  of  attraction.  If  you  would  lift  me  you 
must  be  on  higher  ground.  If  you  would  liberate  me  you 
must  be  free.  If  you  would  correct  my  false  views  of  facts, — 


RALPH  WALDO   EMERSON.  13 

hold  up  to  me  the  same  facts  in  the  true  order  of  thought, 
and  I  cannot  go  back  from  the  new  conviction. 

Eloquence,  like  every  other  art,  rests  on  laws  the  most 
exact  and  determinate.  It  is  the  best  speech  of  the  best 
soul.  It  may  well  stand  as  the  exponent  of  all  that  is 
grand  and  immortal  in  the  mind.  If  it  do.  not  so  become  an 
instrument,  but  aspires  to  be  somewhat  of  itself,  and  to 
glitter  for  show,  it  is  false  and  weak.  In  its  right  exercise, 
it  is  an  elastic,  unexhausted  power, — who  has  sounded,  who 
has  estimated  it? — expanding  with  the  expansion  of  our 
interests  and  affections.  Its  great  masters,  whilst  they  valued 
every  help  to  its  attainment,  and  thought  no  pains  too  great 
which  contributed  in  any  manner  to  further  it, — resembling 
the  Arabian  warrior  of  fame,  who  wore  seventeen  weapons 
in  his  belt,  and  in  personal  combat  used  them  all  occasion- 
ally,—  yet  subordinated  all  means;  never  permitted  any 
talent — neither  voice,  rhythm,  poetic  power,  anecdote,  sar- 
casm— to  appear  for  show;  but  were  grave  men,  who  pre- 
ferred their  integrity  to  their  talent,  and  esteemed  that 
object  for  which  they  toiled,  whether  the  prosperity  of  their 
country,  or  the  laws,  or  a  reformation,  or  liberty  of  speech 
or  of  the  press,  or  letters,  or  morals,  as  above  the  whole 
world,  and  themselves  also. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 
(Adapted   from  his   lecture  on   O'Connell.) 

I  do  not  think  I  exaggerate  when  I  say  that  never  since 
God  made  Demosthenes  has  He  made  a  man  better  fitted 
for  a  great  work  than  He  did  Daniel  O'Connell. 

You  may  say  that  I  am  partial  to  my  hero;  but  John  Ran- 
dolph of  Roanoke,  who  hated  an  Irishman  almost  as  much 
as  he  did  a  Yankee,  when  he  got  to  London  and  heard  O'Con- 
nell, the  old  slaveholder  threw  up  his  hands  and  exclaimed: 
"This  is  the  man,  those  are  the  lips,  the  most  eloquent  that 
speak  English  in  my  day,"  and  I  think  he  was  right. 

Webster  could  address  a  bench  of  judges;  Everett  could 
charm  a  college;  Choate  could  delude  a  jury;  Clay  could 


14  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

magnetize  a  senate;  and  Tom  Corwin  could  hold  the  mob  in 
his  right  hand,  but  no  one  of  these  men  could  do  more  than 
this  one  thing.  The  wonder  about  O'Connell  was  that  he 
could  out-talk  Corwin,  he  could  charm  a  college  better  than 
Everett,  and  leave  Clay  himself  far  behind  in  magnetizing 
a  senate. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  have  heard  all  the  great  ora- 
tors of  America  who  have  become  singularly  famed  about 
the  world's  circumference.  I  know  what  was  the  majesty 
of  Webster;  I  know  what  it  was  to  melt  under  the  maget- 
ism  of  Henry  Clay;  I  have  seen  eloquence  in  the  iron  logic 
of  Calhoun,  but  O'Connell  was  Clay,  Corwin,  Choate,  Everett, 
and  Webster  in  one.  Before  the  courts,  logic;  at  the  bar 
of  the  senate,  unanswerable  and  dignified;  on  the  platform, 
grace,  wit,  and  pathos;  before  the  masses,  a  whole  man. 
Emerson  says:  "There  is  no  true  eloquence,  unless  there 
is  a  man  behind  the  speech."  Daniel  O'Connell  was  listened 
to  because  all  England  and  Ireland  knew  that  there  was  a 
man  behind  the  speech, — one  who  could  be  neither  bought, 
bullied,  nor  cheated. 

When  I  was  in  Naples,  I  asked  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton: 
"Is  Daniel  O'Connell  an  honest  man?"  "As  honest  a  man 
as  ever  breathed,"  said  he,  and  then  he  told  me  the  follow- 
ing story:  "When,  in  1830,  O'Connell  first  entered  parlia- 
ment, the  anti-slavery  cause  was  so  weak  that  it  had  only 
Lushington  and  myself  to  speak  for  it,  and  we  agreed  that 
when  he  spoke  I  should  cheer  him  up,  and  when  I  spoke 
he  should  cheer  me,  and  these  were  the  only  cheers  we  ever 
got.  O'Connell  came  with  one  Irish  member  to  support  him. 
A  large  party  of  members  (I  think  Buxton  said  twenty- 
seven),  whom  we  called  the  West  India  interest,  the  Bristol 
party,  the  slave  party,  went  to  him,  saying,  'O'Connell,  at 
last  you  are  in  the  House,  with  one  helper.  If  you  will  never 
go  down  to  Freemason's  Hall  with  Buxton  and  Brougham, 
here  are  twenty-seven  votes  for  you  on  every  Irish  ques- 
tion. If  you  work  with  those  Abolitionists,  count  us  always 
against  you.' 

"It  was  a  terrible  temptation.  How  many  a  so-called 
statesman  would  have  yielded.  O'Connell  said:  'Gentlemen, 
God  knows  I  speak  for  the  saddest  people  the  sun  sees;  but 
may  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning  and  my  tongue  cleave 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  15 

• 

to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  to  help  Ireland— even  Ireland — 
I  forget  the  negro  one  single  hour.' 

"From  that  day,"  said  Buxton,  "Lushington  and  I  never 
went  into  the  lobby  that  O'Connell  did  not  follow  us." 

And  then,  besides  his  irreproachable  character,  he  had 
what  is  half  the  power  of  a  popular  orator;  he  had  a  majestic 
presence.  In  his  youth  he  had  the  brow  of  a  Jupiter  or  Jove, 
and  the  stature  of  Apollo.  A  little  O'Connell  would  have 
been  no  O'Connell  at  all.  Sydney  Smith  says  of  Lord  John 
Russell's  five  feet,  when  he  went  down  to  Yorkshire  after 
the  Reform  Bill  had  passed,  the  stalwart  hunters  of  York- 
shire exclaimed:  "What,  that  little  shrimp—he  carry  the 
Reform  Bill!"  "No,  no,"  said  Smith;  "he  was  a  large  man, 
but  the  labors  of  the  Bill  shrunk  him." 

These  physical  advantages  are  half  the  battle.  You  re- 
member the  story  Russell  Lowell  tells  of  Webster  when,  a 
year  or  two  before  his  death,  the  Whig  party  thought  of 
dissolution.  Webster  came  home  from  Washington  and  went 
down  to  Faneuil  Hall  to  protest,  and  4,000  of  his  fellow 
Whigs  went  out  to  meet  him.  Drawing  himself  up  to  his 
loftiest  proportions,  his  brow  charged  with  thunder,  before 
that  sea  of  human  faces,  he  said:  "Gentlemen,  I  am  a  Whig, 
a  Massachusetts  Whig,  a  Faneuil  Hall  Whig,  a  revolutionary 
Whig,  a  constitutional  Whig;  and  if  you  break  up  the  Whig 
party,  sir,  where  am  I  to  go?"  "And,"  says  Lowell,  "we 
held  our  breath  thinking  where  he  could  go.  If  he  had 
been  five  feet  three,  we  should  have  said:  'Who  cares  where 
you  go?'" 

So  it  was  with  O'Connell.  There  was  something  majestic 
in  his  presence  before  he  spoke,  and  he  added  to  it  what 
Webster  had  not,  and  what  Clay  had, — the  magnetism  and 
grace  that  melts  a  million  souls  into  his.  When  I  saw  him 
he  was  sixty-five,— lithe  as  a  boy,  his  every  attitude  a  pic- 
ture, his  every  gesture  grace— he  was  still  all  nature;  noth- 
ing but  nature  seemed  to  be  speaking  all  over  him.  It  would 
have  been  delicious  to  have  watched  him  if  he  had  not  spoken 
a  word,  and  all  you  thought  of  was  a  greyhound. 

Then  he  had  a  voice  that  covered  the  gamut.  I  heard  him 
once  say,  "I  send  my  voice  across  the  Atlantic,  careering  like 
the  thunderstorm  against  the  breeze,  to  tell  the  slave-holder 
of  the  Carolinas  that  God's  thunderbolts  are  hot,  and  to  re- 


16^^,  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

mind  the  bondman  tliat  the  dawn  of  his  redemption  is  already 
breaking." 

You  seemed  to  hear  his  voice  reverberating  and  re-echoing 
back  to  London  from  the  Rocky  Mountains.  And  then,  with 
the  slightest  possible  Irish  brogue,  he  would  tell  a  story  that 
would  make  all  Exeter  Hall  laugh,  and  the  next  moment 
there  would  be  tears  in  his  voice,  like  an  old  song,  and  five 
thousand  men  would  be  in  tears.  And  all  the  while  no  effort — 
he  seemed  only  breathing. 

"As  effortless  as  woodland  nooks 
Send  violets  up,  and  paint  them  blue." 


THE  ELOQUENCE  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

(Adapted  from  a  eulogy  delivered  before  the  municipal  authori- 
ties of   Boston,   Mass.,   April  18,    1884.) 

Wendell  Phillips  was  distinctively  the  orator,  as  othera 
were  the  statesmen,,  of  the  anti-slavery  cause.  The  tremen- 
dous controversy  inspired  universal  eloquence,  but  supreme 
over  all  was  the  eloquence  of  Phillips,  as  over  the 
harmonious  tumult  of  a  vast  orchestra  one  clear  voice,  like 
a  lark  high-poised  in  heaven,  steadily  carries  the  melody. 

His  position  was  unique.  He  was  not  a  Whig  or  a  Demo- 
crat, nor  the  graceful  panegyrist  of  an  undisputed  situation. 
Both  parties  denounced  him;  he  must  recruit  a  new  party. 
Public  opinion  condemned  him;  he  must  win  public  opinion 
to  achieve  his  purpose.  Yet  he  did  not  pander  to  the  passion 
of  the  mob.  The  crowd  did  not  follow  him  with  huzzas.  If 
it  tried  to  drown  his  voice,  he  turned  to  the  reporters,  ana 
over  the  raging  multitude  calmly  said:  "Howl  on;  I  speak 
to  thirty  millions  here." 

The  tone,  the  method,  of  the  new  orator  announced  a  new 
spirit.  With  no  party  behind  him  and  appealing  against 
established  tradition,  his  speech  was  necessarily  a  popular 
appeal  for  a  strange  and  unwelcome  cause,  and  the  condition 
of  its  success  was  that  it  both  charm  and  rouse  the  hearer, 
while,  under  the  cover  of  the  fascination,  the  orator  unfolded 


GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS.  17 

his  argument  and  urged  his  plea.  This  condition  the  genius 
of  the  orator  instinctively  perceived,  and  it  determined  the 
character  of  his  discourse. 

He  faced  his  audience  with  a  tranquil  mien,  and  a  beaming 
aspect  that  was  never  dimmed.  He  spoke,  and  in  the  meas- 
ured cadence  of  his  quiet  voice  there  was  intense  feeling, 
but.  no  declamation,  no  passionate  appeal,  no  superficial  or 
feigned  emotion.  It  was  simply  colloquy — a  gentleman  con- 
versing. 

It  used  to  be  said  of  Webster,  "This  is  a  great  effort";  of 
Everett,  "It  is  a  beautiful  effort";  but  you  never  used  the 
word  "effort"  in  speaking  of  Phillips.  It  provoked  you  that 
he  would  not  make  an  effort.  And  this  wonderful  power, — it 
was  not  a  thunderstorm;  yet  somehow  and  surely  the  ear 
and  heart  were  charmed.  How  was  it  done?  Ah!  how  did 
Mozart  do  it,  how  Raphael?  The  secret  of  the  rose's  sweet- 
ness, of  the  bird's  ecstasy,  of  the  sunset's  glory, — that  is 
the  secret  of  genius  and  eloquence.  What  was  heard,  what 
was  seen,  was  the  form  of  noble  manhood,  the  courteous  and 
self-possessed  tone,  the  flow  of  modulated  speech,  sparkling 
with  richness  of  illustration,  with  apt  illusion,  and  happy 
anecdote  and  historic  parallel,  with  wit  and  pitiless  invec- 
tive, with  melodious  pathos,  with  stinging  satire,  with  crack- 
ling epigram  and  limpid  humor,  like  the  bright  ripples  that 
play  around  the  sure  and  steady  prow  of  the  resistless  ship. 
The  divine  energy  of  his  conviction  utterly  possessed  him, 
and  his 

"Pure  and  eloquent  blood 
Spoke  in  his  cheek,  and  so  distinctly  wrought 
That  one  might  almost  say  his  body  thought." 

Was  it  Pericles  swaying  the  Athenian  multitude?  Was  it 
Apollo  breathing  the  music  of  the  morning  from  his  lips? 
It  was  an  American  patriot,  a  modern  son  of  liberty,  with 
a  soul  as  firm  and  as  true  as  was  ever  consecrated  to  un- 
selfish duty,  pleading  with  the  American  conscience  for  the 
chained  and  speechless  victims  of  American  inhumanity. 


18  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


FREE  SPEECH. 

THEODORE     TILTON. 

Free  speech  is  not  merely  a  spark  from  an  eloquent  orator's 
glowing  tongue,  even  though  his  utterance  has  power  to 
kindle  men's  passions  or  melt  their  hearts.  Free  speech  is 
an  eloquence  above  eloquence.  It  is  an  oratory  of  its  own, 
and  not  every  orator  is  its  apostle. 

For  many  years  a  Carmelite '  monk  touched  the  souls  of 
men  with  the  consolation  of  faith;  and  Paris,  listening,  said: 
"This  is  eloquence."  Then,  in  that  trial  hour  of  his  his- 
tory, this  same  preacher,  against  the  impending  and  dread 
anathema  of  Rome,  exclaimed:  "I  will  not  enter  the  pulpit 
in  chains!"  And  the  world  said:  "Hark!  This  is  more  than 
eloquence— it  is  Free  Speech."  Yes;  eloquence  is  one  thing 
and  free  speech  is  another.  Open  Macaulay's  history.  Lord 
Halifax  was  the  chief  silver-tongue  among  a  whole  genera- 
tion of  English  statesmen;  but  though  he  woke  the  ringing 
echoes  of  many  a  parliament,  and  though  wherever  he  went 
he  carried  a  full  mouth  of  fine  English,  yet  never,  in  all  his 
public  career,  did  he  utter  as  much  free  speech  as  John 
Hampden  let  loose  in  a  single  sentence,  when  he  said:  "I 
will  not  pay  twenty-one  shillings  and  sixpence  ship  money." 

Edward  Everett  leaves  many  speeches;  Patrick  Henry  few. 
But  the  great  word-painter,  who  busied  himself  with  paint- 
ing the  white  lily  of  Washington's  fame,  never  caught  that 
greater  language  of  free  speech  that  burned  upon  the  tongue 
of  him  who  knew  how  to  say:  "Give  me  Liberty  or  give  me 
Death." 

Free  speech  is  like  the  angel  that  delivered  Saint  Peter 
from  prison.  Its  mission  is  to  rescue  from  captivity  some 
divinely  inspired  truth  or  principle,  which  unjust  men  have 
locked  in  dungeons  or  bound  in  chains.  For  thirty  years 
the  free  speech  of  this  country  was  consecrated  to  one  sub- 
lime idea:  an  idea  graven  on  the  bell  of  Independence,  which 
says:  "Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land,  to  all  the 
inhabitants  thereof."  After  thirty  years'  debate  on  human 
liberty,  this  idea  is  like  Ophelia's  rosemary:  it  is  for  remem- 
brance; and  it  calls  to  mind  the  champions  of  free  speech 


THEODORE   TILTON.  19 

in  New  England.  They  are  the  choice  master  spirits  of  the 
age.  Some  of  them  have  been  hissed;  others  hailed;  all 
shall  be  revered.  As  the  legend  runs,  Saint  Hubert  died 
and  was  buried.  A  green  branch  lying  on  his  breast  was 
buried  with  him;  and  when,  at  the  end  of  a  hundred  years, 
his  grave  was  opened,  the  good  man's  body  had  dissolved 
into  dust,  but  the  fair  branch  had  kept  its  perennial  green. 
So  the  advocates  of  free  speech  shall  die  and  their  laurels 
be  buried  with  them.  But  when  the  next  generation,  wise, 
just,  and  impartial,  shall  make  inquiry  for  the  heroes,  the 
prophets,  and  princely  souls  of  this  present  age,  long  after 
their  bones  are  ashes  their  laurels  shall  abide  in  imperish- 
able green. 


20  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

CAMPAIGN  ORATORY. 


(From  an  editorial  in  the  Century  for  August,  1900.) 
It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  tone  of  political  oratory  has 
been  cheapened  in  the  last  decade.  Those  who  are  usu- 
ally charged  with  the  business  of  supplying  the  spoken  argu- 
ments of  a  campaign,  should  consider  that  the  ablest 
speakers  may  be  more  useful  at  the  outset  than  at  the  end 
of  the  canvass.  It  has  been  the  custom  to  save  the  heavy 
guns  for  an  awful  detonation  at  the  close;  and  so  far  as 
they  are  guns  of  percussion  rather  than  of  precision,  they  are 
well  placed  at  the  end,  when  everybody  is  longing  to  have 
surcease  of  the  noise,  as  well  as  of  the  suspense.  But  at  the 
outset  the  ablest  speakers — meaning  thereby  the  men  who 
always  have  something  serious  to  say,  and  know  how  to  say 
it.  well — perform  a  double  service:  they  predispose  the  public 
to  lend  an  ear  to  the  discussable  issues  of  a  campaign,  and 
they  set  the  style  for  the  young  men  who  talk  at  the  minor 
meetings. 

Grand  rallies  are  made  up  almost  entirely  of  the  party 
zealots,  but  the  neighborhood  gatherings  draw  largely  from 
the  people  who  are  in  a  mood  to  welcome  information,  and 
are  therefore  the  most  important  of  all  the  political  meet- 
ings, in  so  far  as  it  is  possible  nowadays  to  influence  the  mass 
of  voters  by  personal  exhortation.  Speakers  who  appeal 
merely  to  the  prejudices  of  men  or  chiefly  seek  to  amuse  them 
may  succeed  in  holding  to  a  party  those  who  have  already 
yielded  their  consciences,  but  they  seldom  make  converts  to 
a  cause.  Citizens  who  are  capable  of  having  political  con- 
victions form  them,  and  change  them,  only  on  facts  pre- 
sented in  arguments  which  arouse  serious  reflection.  The 
larger  newspaper  activity  in  political  discussion  undoubt- 
edly is  often  considered  a  reason  for  some  indifference  to 
the  character  of  what  is  spoken  from  the  stump.  Instead 
of  being  a  valid  excuse,  that  is  the  strongest  indictment  of 
such  indifference.  Unquestionably  the  thinking  citizen  be- 
comes weary  of  the  iteration  of  the  press,  which  in  its  par- 
tisan capacity  wears  the  aspect  of  a  professional  advocate; 
and  the  finest  wisdom  diffused  in  cold  type  lacks  something 


CAMPAIGN  ORATORY.  .        21 

of  the  persuasion  of  the  earnest  voice  and  the  conviction  of 
the  flashing  eye  and  the  magnetic  manner.  The  quickness  of 
apprehension  of  the  average  American  audience  is  of  itself  a 
sign  that  the  shortest  avenue  to  the  greatest  political  influ- 
ence with  the  American  people  will  always  lead  from  the 
rostrum. 

Certainly  it  has  always  been  so.  No  American  statesman 
has  a  greater  reputation  for  geniality  of  temper  and  a  large 
vein  of  private  humor  than  Abraham  Lincoln.  Probably  no 
American  statesman  has  ever  been  more  influential  in  what 
he  addressed  by  speech  and  letter  to  the  public.  But  Lin- 
coln's aim  before  an  audience  was  never  to  amuse;  neither 
did  he  seek  merely  to  interest;  with  a  purpose  of  lofty  seri- 
ousness he  always  sought  to  convince. 

And  yet  the  "silver-tongued"  forever  have  vogue  with  the 
managers  of  political  meetings.  In  the  stress  of  filling  time 
they  seem  to  have  enormous  value,  but  it  may  be  doubted 
if  they  fill  ballot-boxes.  Demagogic  leaders  have  a  special 
fondness  for  them,  and  often  thrive  in  spite  of  the  inutility 
of  such  eloquence.  But  the  political  speakers  who  steadily 
grow  in  influence  as  their  powers  mature,  who  are  a  help  to 
their  party  and  a  credit  to  their  country,  are  men  who  have 
a  capacity  for  facts,  and  an  overmastering  sense  of  the  seri- 
ousness of  political  thought  and  action. 


BIMETALISM. 

WILLIAM  J.  BRYAN. 

(Extract    from   the    speech   delivered   before   the   Democratic    Na- 
tional Convention,  July  9,  1896,   in  concluding  the  debate 
on  the  adoption  of  the  platform.) 

jMr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: — 

We  have  assembled  here  under  as  binding  and  solemn  in- 
structions as  were  ever  imposed  upon  representatives  of  the 
people.  We  do  not  come  as  individuals.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
persons;  it  is  a  question  of  principles,  and  it  is  not  with  glad- 
ness, my  friends,  that  we  find  ourselves  brought  into  conflict 
with  those  who  are  now  arrayed  on  the  other  side. 


22  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

The  gentleman  who  preceded  me  spoke  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts;  let  me  assure  him  that  not  one  present  in  all 
this  convention  entertains  the  least  hostility  to  the  people 
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  but  we  stand  here  represent- 
ing people  who  are  the  equals  before  the  law  of  the  greatest 
citizens  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  When  you  come  be- 
fore us  and  tell  us  that  we  are  about  to  disturb  your  busi- 
ness interests,  we  reply  that  you  have  disturbed  our  business 
interests  by  your  course. 

We  say  to  you  that  you  have  made  the  definition  of  a 
business  man  too  limited  in  its  application.  The  man 
who  is  employed  for  wages  is  as  much  a  business  man  as 
his  employer;  the  attorney  in  a  country  town  is  as 
much  a  business  man  as  the  corporation  counsel  in  a 
great  metropolis;  the  merchant  at  the  cross-roads  store 
is  as  much  a  business  man  as  the  merchant  of  New 
York;  the  farmer  who  goes  forth  in  the  morning  and  toils  all 
day — who  begins  in  the  spring  and  toils  all  summer — and  who 
by  the  application  of  brain  and  muscle  to  the  natural  resources 
of  the  country  creates  wealth,  is  as  much  a  business  man  as 
the  man  who  goes  upon  the  board  of  trade  and  bets  upon  the 
price  of  grain;  the  miners  who  go  down  a  thousand  feet  into 
the  earth,  or  climb  two  thousand  feet  upon  the  cliffs,  and 
bring  forth  from  their  hiding  places  the  precious  metals  to 
be  poured  into  the  channels  of  trade  are  as  much  business 
men  as  the  few  financial  magnates  who,  in  a  back  room, 
corner  the  money  of  the  world.  We  come  to  speak  for  this 
broader  class  of  business  men. 

Ah,  my  friends,  we  say  not  one  word  against  those  who 
live  upon  the  Atlantic  coast,  but  the  hardy  pioneers  who 
have  braved  all  the  dangers  of  the  wilderness,  who  have  made 
the  desert  to  blossom  as  the  rose — the  pioneers  away  out 
there  who  rear  their  children  near  to  Nature's  heart,  where 
they  can  mingle  their  voices  with  the  voices  of  the  birds — 
out  there  where  they  have  erected  school  houses  for  the  edu-* 
cation  of  their  young,  churches  where  they  praise  their  Cre- 
ator, and  cemeteries  where  rest  the  ashes  of  their  dead— 
these  people,  we  say,  are  as  deserving  of  the  consideration 
of  our  party  as  any  people  in  this  country.  It  is  for  these 
that  we  speak.  We  do  not  come  as  aggressors.  Our  war  is  not 


WILLIAM   J.   BRYAN.  23 

a  war  of  conquest;  we  are  fighting  in  the  defense  of  our  homes, 
our  families,  and  posterity.  We  have  petitioned,  and  our 
petitions  have  been  scorned;  we  have  entreated  and  our  en- 
treaties have  been  disregarded;  we  have  begged,  and  they 
have  mocked  when  our  calamity  came.  We  beg  no  longer; 
we  entreat  no  more;  we  petition  no  more.  We  defy  them. 

Mr.  Carlisle  said  in  1878  that  this  was  a  struggle  between 
"the  idle  holders  of  idle  capital"  and  "the  struggling  masses, 
who  produce  the  wealth  and  pay  the  taxes  of  the  country," 
and,  my  friends,  the  question  we  are  to  decide  is:  Upon 
which  side  will  the  Democratic  party  fight:  upon  the  side  of 
the  "idle  holders  of  idle  capital"  or  upon  the  side  of  "the 
struggling  masses"?  That  is  the  question  which  the  party 
must  answer  first,  and  then  it  must  be  answered  by  each 
individual  hereafter.  The  sympathies  of  the  Democratic  party, 
as  shown  by  the  platform,  are  on  the  side  of  the  struggling 
masses  who  have  ever  been  the  foundation  of  the  Democratic 
party.  There  are  two  ideas  of  government.  There  are  those 
who  believe  that,  if  you  will  only  legislate  to  make  the  well- 
to  do  prosperous,  their  prosperity  will  leak  through  on  those 
below.  The  Democratic  idea,  however,  has  been  that  if  you 
legislate  to  make  the  masses  prosperous,  their  prosperity 
will  find  its  way  up  through  every  class  which  rests  upon 
them. 

You  come  to  us  and  tell  us  that  the  great  cities  are  in 
favor  of  the  gold  standard;  we  reply  that  the  great  cities 
rest  upon  our  broad  and  fertile  prairies.  Burn  down  your 
cities  and  leave  our  farms  and  your  cities  will  spring  up  again 
as  if  by  magic;  but  destroy  our  farms  and  the  grass  will  grow 
in  the  streets  of  every  city  in  the  country. 

My  friends,  we  declare  that  this  nation  is  able  to  legislate 
for  its  own  people  on  every  question,  without  waiting  for  the 
aid  or  consent  of  any  other  nation  on  earth;  and  upon  that 
issue  we  expect  to  carry  every  state  in  the  Union.  Having 
behind  us  the  producing  masses  of  this  nation  and  the  world, 
supported  by  the  commercial  interests,  the  laboring  interests 
and  the  toilers  everywhere,  we  will  answer  their  demand  for 
a  gold  standard  by  saying  to  them:  "You  shall  not  press 
down  upon  the  brow  of  labor  this  crown  of  thorns;  you  shall 
not  crucify  mankind  upon  a  cross  of  gold." 


24  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER,, 


TRUSTS. 

WILLIAM  J.  BRYAN. 

(Extract  from   an   address  delivered   at   the.   Chicago    Anti-Trust 
Conference,    September   16,   1899.) 

A  monopoly  in  private  hands  is  indefensible  from  any 
standpoint,  and  intolerable.  I  make  no  exceptions  to  the 
rule.  I  do  not  divide  monopolies  in  private  hands  into  good 
monopolies  and  bad  monopolies.  There  is  no  good  monopoly 
in  private  hands.  There  can  be  no  good  monopoly  in  private 
hands  until  the  Almighty  sends  us  angels  to  preside  over  the 
monopoly.  There  may  be  a  despot  who  is  better  than  another 
despot,  but  there  is  no  good  despotism.  One  trust  may  be 
less  harmful  than  another.  One  trust  magnate  may  be  more 
benevolent  than  another,  but  there  is  no  good  monopoly  in 
private  hands,  and  I  do  not  believe  it  is  safe  for  society  to 
permit  any  man  or  group  of  men  to  monopolize  any  article 
of  merchandise  or  any  branch  of  industry. 

My  contention  is  that  we  have  been  placing  the  dollar 
above  the  man;  that  we  have  been  picking  out  favorites 
and  bestowing  upon  them  special  privileges,  and  every  ad- 
vantage we  have  given  them  has  been  given  them  to  the  det- 
riment of  other  people.  My  contention  is  that  there  is  a 
vicious  principle  running  through  the  various  policies  which 
we  have  been  pursuing;  that  in  our  taxation  we  have  been 
imposing  upon  the  great  struggling  masses  the  burdens  of 
government,  while  we  have  been  voting  the  privileges  to  a 
few  people  who  will  not  pay  their  share  of  the  expenses  of 
the  government. 

Every  trust  rests  upon  a  corporation — at  least  that  rule 
is  so  nearly  universal  that  I  think  we  can  accept  it  as  a  basis 
for  legislation.  Every  trust  rests  upon  a  corporation  and 
every  corporation  is  a  creature  of  law.  The  corporation  is 
a  man-made  man. 

When  God  made  man  as  the  climax  of  creation  he  looked 
upon  his  work  and  said  that  it  was  good,  and  yet  when  God 
finished  his  work  the  tallest  man  was  not  much  taller  than 
the  shortest  and  the  strongest  man  was  not  much  stronger 
than  the  weakest.  That  was  God's  plan.  We  looked  upon 


WILLIAM   J.   BRYAN.  25 

'his  work  and  said  that  it  was  not  quite  as  good  as  it  might 
be,  and  so  we  made  a  fictitious  person  called  a  corporation 
that  is  in  some  instances  a  hundred  times— a  thousand 
times — a  million  times  stronger  than  the  God-made  man. 
Then  we  started  this  man-made  giant  out  among  the  God- 
made  men.  When  God  made  man  he  placed  a  limit  to  his 
existence,  so  that  if  he  was  a  bad  man  he  could  not  do  harm 
long,  but  when  we  made  our  man-made  man  we  raised  the 
limit  as  to  age.  In  some  states  a  corporation  is  given  per- 
petual life. 

When  God  made  man  he  breathed  into  him  a  soul  and 
warned  him  that  in  the  next  world  he  would  be  held  account- 
able for  the  deeds  done  in  the  flesh,  but  when  we  made  our 
man-made  man  we  did  not  give  him  a  soul,  and  if  he  can 
avoid  punishment  in  this  world  he  need  not  worry  about  the 
hereafter. 

My  contention  is  that  the  government  that  created  must 
retain  control,  and  that  the  man-made  man  must  be  admon- 
ished: "Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth" 
and  throughout  thy  entire  life. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  again  to  this  distinction.  We 
are  not  dealing  with  the  natural  man;  we  are  not  dealing 
with  natural  rights.  We  are  dealing  with  the  man-made 
man  and  artifical  privileges. 

What  government  gives  the  government  can  take  away. 
What  the  government  creates  it  can  control,  and  I  insist  that 
both  the  state  government  and  the  federal  government  must 
protect  the  God-made  man  from  the  man-made  man. 

God  made  all  men  and  He  did  not  make  some  to  crawl  on 
hands  and  knees  and  others  to  ride  upon  their  backs.  Let 
us  show  what  can  be  done  when  we  put  into  actual  practice 
the  great  principles  of  human  equality  and  of  equal  rights. 
Then  this  nation  will  fulfill  its  holy  mission  and  lead  the  other 
nations  step  by  step  in  the  progress  of  the  human  race  toward 
a  higher  civilization. 


MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


EXPANSIOiN. 

SENATOR   WILLIAM   P.    FRYE,    OF   MAINE. 

(From  an  address  delivered  in  New  York  City,  April  27,  1899,   at 
a   dinner  given  by  various   New  York  associa- 
tions in  honor  of  Senator  Frye.) 

What  shall  we  do  with  the  Philippines?  In  my  judgment 
there  will  be  no  uncertain  sound  in  the  answer  of  our  people. 
They  have  been  acquired  honestly,  and  in  their  acquirement 
we  have  dealt  generously  with  Spain.  We  will  hold  them 
as  our  own,  for  the  good  of  the  peoples  who  inhabit  them 
and  for  the  immense  advantage,  commercially,  they  promise 
us.  We  will  give  them  a  good  government,  relief  from  bur- 
densome taxation,  ample  security  in  all  their  civil  and  reli- 
gious rights.  We  will  build  highways,  construct  railroads, 
erect  school-houses  and  churches.  We  will  allow  them  to  par- 
ticipate in  government  so  far  and  so  fast  as  we  may  find  them 
capable.  *We  will  give  employment  to  labor  and  good  wages 
to  the  laborer.  We  will  arouse  in  them  an  ambition  to  become 
good  citizens,  competent  to  manage  their  own  local  affairs 
and  interests.  We  will  make  it  possible  for  them,  some  time 
in  the  future,  to  form  a  stable  republican  government,  capable 
of  making  treaties,  enforcing  their  rights  under  them,  and 
observing  their  obligations.  Then  we,  alone  being  the  judges 
of  their  competency,  will  surrender  to  them  the  sovereignty, 
reserving  to  ourselves  the  naval  and  coaling  stations  neces- 
sary for  our  commerce  and  its  protection.  In  the  meantime, 
we  will  not  restore  a  rod  to  Spain  or  sell  a  rod  to  any  nation 
of  the  earth;  nor  will  we  permit  our  supreme  authority  to 
be  diminished  or  questioned  by  any  power  within  or  without 
the  islands. 

Such  utterances  as  these  may  subject  me  to  the  charge  of 
being  an  expansionist.  I  plead  guilty  to  the  indictment,  and 
find  myself  in  most  exalted  company. 

In  1803,  when  our  area  was  only  a  little  over  eight  hundred 
thousand  square  miles,  the  Louisiana  Territory  was  annexed. 
It  included  Arkansas,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Ore- 
gon, Colorado,  North  and  South  Dakota,  Washington,  Mon- 
tana, Idaho  and  Wyoming,  1,171,000  square  miles.  What  an 


WILLIAM   P.   FRYE.  27 

outcry  the  anti-expansionists  raised!  Senator  White  of  Dela- 
ware declared  "it  would  prove  the  greatest  curse  that  could 
befall  us." 

Representative  Griswold  of  Connecticut:  "It  will  prove  the 
subversion  of  our  Union." 

A  voice  of  Massachusetts  was  heard,  as  now.  Josiah  Quiney, 
when  it  was  proposed  to  admit  Louisiana  as  a  State,  speaking 
of  the  purchase  of  the  Territory,  said: 

"If  this  bill  passes,  the  bonds  of  the  Union  are  virtually  dis- 
solved. The  Constitution  never  was  and  never  can  be  strained 
to  lap  over  all  the  wilderness  of  the  West.  You  have  no  au- 
thority to  throw  the  rights  and  liberties  and  prosperity  of 
this  people  into  hotchpot  with  the  wild  men  of  Missouri,  nor 
with  the  mixed  race  of  Anglo-Gallo-Americans  who  bask  on 
the  sands  in  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  This  bill,  if  it 
passes,  is  a  death  blow  to  the  Constitution." 

Dickerson  of  New  Jersey  said:  "Oregon  can  never  be  one 
of  the  United  States.  The  Union  is  already  too  extensive." 

Even  as  late  as  1845,  when  Texas  was  under  discussion, 
Daniel  Webster  deplored  the  tendency  to  enlarge  our  terri- 
tory, and  declared  that  it  was  dangerous  to  our  institutions. 

But  in  spite  of  the  prophecies  of  evil,  we  kept  right  on 
extending;  in  1819  added  Florida;  Texas  in  1845;  New  Mexico 
and  California  in  1848;  Alaska  in  1867,  until  we  have  increased 
our  original  800,000  square  miles  to  over  2,800,000,  and  our 
Constitution  survives;  our  Declaration  of  Independence  lives, 
and  our  Union  is  more  powerfully  cemented  than  ever.  1  am 
encouraged  and  strengthened  in  my  faith  that  the  Republic 
will  survive  the  acquisition  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Philippines,  and  that  the  advantages  to  be  derived  by  us, 
commercially,  will  compensate  us  a  hundredfold  for  all  the 
cost,  while  the  war  waged  for  humanity's  sake  will,  if  we 
are  faithful,  lay  up  for  the  Republic  treasures  in  heaven. 


28  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

EXPAND  AT  HOME  AND  NOT  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES. 

D.  A.  DeARMOND,  OF  MISSOURI. 

(From    a    speech    delivered    in    the    House    of    Representatives, 
February   10,    1899.) 

It  is  argued  that  if  we  are  to  be  the  leading  nation  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  we  must  undertake  the  task  of  governing 
the  Filipinos.  Sir,  our  tasks  are  here.  Our  duty  is  to  our  own 
people.  When  we  have  builded  a  greater  republic  here,  when 
we  have  advanced  in  the  development  of  our  resources,  when 
we  have  furnished  the  steady  light  for  the  guidance  of  the 
world,  then  we  shall  have  performed  well  our  part  in  history. 
Here  is  our  theater.  Here  Providence  has  cast  our  lot.  Here  is 
the  scene  of  our  duty.  Here  is  the  field  of  the  glorious  achieve- 
ments of  our  fathers.  Here  is  the  arena  for  our  children.  Why 
seek  to  enlarge  it  in  the  Old  World?  Why  seek  to  add  to  it 
that  which  can  never  be  harmonized  with  it? 

Some  gentlemen  suggest  that  the  Filipinos  shall  not  come 
in  as  citizens  of  the  United  States.  What  then,  do  you  want 
with  them?  What  is  to  be  their  relation  to  the  people 
of  this  country,  if  they  are  not  to  become  citizens  of  the 
United  States?  I  do  not  wish  them  to  be  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  I  do  not  believe  in  lowering  the  level  of  citizen- 
ship so  that  they  can  reach  it.  I  do  not  believe  in  adding 
to  the  bulk  of  illiteracy,  of  venality,  of  corruption,  that  which 
is  to  come  in  by  the  incorporation  of  the  Filipinos. 

But  do  you  say,  "Let  us  hold  them?"  What  a  magnificent 
spectacle  that  would  be  to  the  rest  of  the  world!  What  a 
travesty  upon  republicanism  for  the  giant  Republic,  the 
exemplar  Republic,  the  Republic  in  the  van,  to  go  into  the 
business  of  holding  colonies  and  subduing  and  governing 
people  as  the  monarchies,  absolute  and  despicable,  do! 

What  encouragement  could  we  thus  afford  to  struggling 
humanity  the  world  over?  How  many  thousands,  aye, 
how  many  millions  of  people,  have  looked  across  the 
dark  scenes  of  the  present,  hoping  to  see  the  brighter 
light  of  the  future— hoping  to  see  the  gleam  of  the  star  of 
liberty  blazing  in  the  great  Republic  of  America,  in  the  west- 
ern world,  and  trusting  that  thence  the  inspiration  would 


D.    A.    D6ARMOND.  29 

come,  teaching  that  man  can  govern  himself,  and  inviting 

the  brave,  the  resolute,  the  true,  the  generous,  to  escape 
from  onerous  conditions  existing  and  partake  of  that  liberty 
which  we  Americans  have  long  enjoyed. 

What  message  shall  we  send  out  to  those  people  if,  instead 
of  continuing  the  champion  of  personal  liberty,  we  now 
turn  to  be  the  oppressor?  How  shall  we  hope  to  maintain 
a  Government  such  as  we  have  so  long  boasted  of — a  Gov- 
ernment of  freemen  by  freemen — if  the  Government  itself 
is  to  engage  in  the  business  of  subjugating  and  oppressing 
the  Filipinos,  lately  our  allies,  in  another  hemisphere?  How 
shall  we  hope,  after  having  taken  up  the  business  of  protect- 
ing the  oppressed  and  affording  an  asylum  to  the  weak  and 
suffering  throughout  the  whole  world,  to  escape  condemna- 
tion, if  in  turn,  we,  ourselves,  adopt  a  policy  of  subjugation 
and  force  rule? 

Let  us  not  stumble  along  blindfolded  until  the  fact,  that 
we  never  have  parted  with  any  territory  once  regarded  as 
our  own,  may  be  used  as  an  argument  and  a  sentiment  against 
doing  what  is  certain,  if  we  persist  in  this  course  of  imperial- 
ism, soon  to  be  proved  necessary  for  our  own  welfare — to  get 
away  from  the  Orient  and  devote  our  energies  to  our  own 
country  and  hemisphere,  to  the  protection  and  the  upbuilding 
of  our  own  institutions  at  home. 


OUR  DUTY  TOWARDS  "IMPERIALISM.1 


BISHOP     DOANE. 

(From  a  sermon  to  his  diocese  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1898.) 
I  am  not  frightened  by  the  alarming  sound  of  this  newly 
coined  word  "imperialism,"  which  may  mean  much  of  good,  or 
much  of  evil.  I  look  with  grave  anxiety  upon  the  tremendous 
problems  which  demand  the  utmost  wisdom  of  a  statesman- 
ship for  whose  creation  we  have  need  to  pray.  But  the  duties 
are  upon  us,  and  the  dangers  are  before  us,  and  we  must  meet 
them  like  men  and  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  not  apply  to  the 
conditions  of  to-day  counsels  that  were  wise  a  hundred  years 


30  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ago,  nor  whine  like  babies  at  a  bitter  dose  of  medicine,  or 
school  boys  over  a  lesson  that  is  hard  to  learn. 

The  brave  and  honest,  and  it  seems  to  me,  the  sensible  and 
only  attitude  is  that  of  waiting  upon  God,  to  learn  and  get 
from  him  the  wisdom  and  the  grace  to  work  out  his  will, 
which  has  carved  out  with  sword  and  cannon  and  musket,  by 
fleets  and  armies,  a  new  place  for  this  people  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  world.  Courage  and  not  complaining,  prayer  and 
not  vain  regrets,  confidence  and  not  cowardice,  ought  to  be  the 
spirit  of  every  citizen  of  America  to-day.  We  have  won,  not 
a  victory  over  a  brave  but  feeble  foe,  but  we  have  won  unity 
among  ourselves,  the  knitting  together  of  the  English  speak- 
ing race,  the  deliverance  of  an  oppressed  people,  an  open 
way  among  the  nations  for  a  purer  faith,  a  truer  liberty,  a 
finer  civilization.  And  we  must  pay  the  penalty,  too,  of  the 
grief  and  losses  of  the  war  and  of  its  heavy  burden  of  national 
responsibility. 

Of  the  duty  of  this  nation  to  the  world,  we  ought  to  think 
and  speak  on  our  knees.  If  we  believe  in  a  perpetual  provi- 
dence of  God,  if  we  believe  in  his  active  government  of  the 
world,  we  cannot  doubt  that,  no  matter  by  what  means  it 
comes  about,  the  God  who  made  all  nations  of  men  for  to 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  not  once  in  the  beginning 
as  a  final  act,  but  continually  by  the  revelations  of  His 
will,  assigns  to  them  the  bounds  of  their  habitations. 

The  discovery  of  the  continents,  the  inhabitations  of  dis- 
tance by  electricity  and  steam,  the  hearts  that  beat  in  unison 
because  of  this  one  physical  descent,  across  the  ocean  from 
England  to  Australia,  from  America  to  England,  the  tongues 
that  speak  the  same  language  under  every  sky,  the  bonds  of 
commerce,  the  common  interests  of  similar  civilization  and  of 
one  religion,  which  bind  into  a  great  family  of  numerous 
nationalities  that  composite  race  of  Anglo-American-In- 
dian-Australian  men;  these  are  the  signs  of  God's  will  in  ap- 
portioning habitations  and  assigning  duties  to  the  men  who 
are  the  creatures  of  his  hand  and  the  instruments  of  his 
sway.  It  is  God  who  hath  wrought  this  out  and  who  hath 
changed  the  face  of  the  world,  who  hath  made  the  little  one 
a  strong  nation,  who  has  wiped  out,  piece  by  piece,  off  the 
map  of  America  the  name  even  of  the  nation  whose  illus- 


BISHOP   DOANE.  31 

trious  son  discovered  the  existence  of  its  southern  hemi- 
sphere, who  has  built  up  the  domination  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
over  the  Latin  races,  who  has  almost  reversed  the  miracle 
of  Babel  by  the  mastery  of  the  English  speech  in  all  civilized 
nations  of  the  world. 

These  are  the  conditions  which  confront  us.  We  cannot  go 
backward  to  the  circumstances  of  a  century  ago.  Not  con- 
quest, not  new  worlds  to  conquer,  but  the  acceptance  of 
responsibility,  in  the  world  of  which  we  are  a  part,  among 
the  nations  and  people  of  the  earth,  to  whom  we  have  a  mes- 
sage; this  is  our  duty,  written,  it  seems  to  me,  for  him  who 
runs  to  read. 


THE  TREATY  OF  PARIS  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

CUSHMAN    K.    DAVIS. 
One  of  the  American  Commissioners  to  negotiate  terms   of  peace 

with   Spain. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  delivered  before  the  Union  League  Club, 
of  Chicago,   February  22,  1899.) 

You  ask  me  why  we  demanded  the  cession  of  the  Philip- 
pine islands.  Practically  the  entire  question  as  to  the  Philip- 
pines was  finally  left  by  the  President  to  the  judgment  of 
the  American  commissioners.  It  was  at  first  thought  that 
it  would  be  sufficient  for  naval  and  strategic  purposes  to 
take  the  island  of  Luzon  only;  but  the  best  military  and 
naval  authorities  laid  the  situation  before  us  from  a  mili- 
tary, naval,  and  strategic  point  of  view,  and  made  it  per- 
fectly clear  that  we  must  either  take  the  entire  archipelago 
or  abandon  it  entirely;  that  the  situs  of  those  islands  as  to 
each  other  was  such  that  the  acquisition  of  one,  with  a  hostile 
power,  or  a  foreign  power  of  whatever  disposition,  holding 
any  of  the  others,  would  only  reproduce  the  conditions  of 
Cuba  as  against  the  United  States  and  create  a  perpetual 
threat  and  danger  in  the  waters  of  the  East.  In  view  of  the 
astounding  changes  which  the  Chinese  Empire  has  been 
subjected  to,  and  is  destined  to  further  undergo,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  United  States  to  have  a  sufficient  naval  station 


32  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

and  also  a  commanding  commercial  position  in  those  waters. 
Besides,  considering  the  case  from  a  higher  point  of  observa- 
tion, who  in  this  audience  would  have  advised  us  to  leave 
the  Philippines,  or  any  portion  of  those  islands,  to  the  in- 
effable atrocities  of  Spain?  When  Dewey  set  the  stars  of 
that  flag  among  the  antipodal  constellations  of  those  Oriental 
skies,  he  imposed  upon  the  American  people  a  responsibility 
of  which  we  did  not  dream,  and  which  we  cannot  avoid. 

In  view  of  our  past  and  coming  interests  in  the  Chinese 
Orient,  we  cannot  endure  that  the  Philippines  shall  be  dis- 
membered by  foreign  powers,  as  they  will  be  if  this  Govern- 
ment removes  itself  from  that  situation.  Above  all  things, 
my  fellow-citizens,  although  appearing  perhaps  dimly  before 
us  now,  I  believe  there  is  a  profound  perception  in  the  minds 
of  the  American  people  that  part  of  all  this  force  which 
has  pushed  and  established  us  there  is  an  impetus  which 
tells  for  civilization,  for  a  better  Christianity,  and  that  the 
United  States,  as  the  great  evangelist  of  the  nations,  is 
destined  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  regeneration  of  the 
Asiatic  Orient.  It  has  been  asked,  "Why  did  you  not  take  a 
relinquishment  of  sovereignty  as  in  the  case  of  Cuba,  or 
establish  a  protectorate?"  The  conditions  were  not  the  same. 
We  had  pledged  our  faith  that  we  would  not  acquire  Cuba. 
We  can  establish  a  protectorate  or  exercise  a  vigilance  over 
Cuba  with  comparative  ease,  but  who  wishes  to  establish 
at  once  and  now  a  republic  under  our  protectorate  in  the 
Philippines  which  can  involve  us  in  all  sorts  of  complica- 
tions with  foreign  powers,  make  us  responsible  for  its  diplo- 
matic relations,  for  its  failures,  delinquencies,  and  its 
aggressions,  and  involve  us  in  wars  which  we  did  not  cause, 
but  which  we  must  inevitably  enter  into  when  once  caused 
by  another? 

To  us  the  acquisition  of  the  Philippine  archipelago  is  not 
the  mere  gratification  of  the  lust  or  pride  of  conquest.  Let 
us  all  endeavor  to  look  a  little  beyond  day  after  to-morrow, 
into  a  visible  future,  and  let  us  mark  certain  great  tendencies, 
proceeding  with  all  the  force  and  regularity,  and  sometimes 
with  the  slowness,  of  a  great  geological  process,  and  see,  if 
we  can,  what  is  meant  by  that  which  has  thus  been  transpir- 
ing on  the  surface  of  human  affairs  within  the  last  fifty  years, 


CUSHMAN   K.   DAVIS.  33 

namely,  the  tendency  (shall  I  call  it  of  humanity,  or  shall 
I  call  it  the  forces  which  move  the  human  race?)  towards 
the  Chinese  Orient — the  Asiatic  East.  France  has  acquired 
Madagascar,  looking  towards  India.  In  Africa  the  great  cen- 
ters of  annexation  are  upon  the  eastern  coast.  Russia  is 
constructing  across  Siberia  that  great  transcontinental  rail- 
road which  was  forecast  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  Peter 
the  Great  sent  Vitus  Bering  overland  to  the  straits  which  bear 
his  name.  By  the  Cassini  treaty  of  1896  Russia  has  obtained 
practical  control  of  Chinese  Manchuria,  an  area  as  large  as 
Texas  and  containing  twenty  millions  of  people.  She  has 
obtained  Port  Arthur,  always  open,  for  a  terminus  of  the 
trans-Siberian  railroad  instead  of  Vladivostok,  frozen  four 
months  in  the  year.  France  has  seized  Tonquin,  Annam, 
Cambodia,  and  Cochin  China.  Germany  has  made  a  com- 
pensatory seizure  opposite  to  Corea.  These  operations  are 
of  evil  portent.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  the  dismemberment 
of  the  great  Chinese  Empire — an  empire  which  was  old  when 
Alexander  watered  his  steed  in  the  Indus;  an  empire  so 
ancient  that  it  has  undergone  all  the  great  experiences  of 
the  human  race,  and  has,  in  the  process,  survived.  I  am  in 
favor  of  the  integrity  of  that  empire,  and  desire  that  it  may 
become  accessible  to  all  the  civilized  world  and  to  its  com- 
merce. Accordingly,  I  have  said  and  I  think  that  it  would 
safeguard  the  peace  of  the  world  for  fifty  years  if  Great 
Britain,  Japan,  and  the  United  States,  as  to  all  those  Oriental 
waters,  and  the  lands  bordering  upon  them  north  of  the 
equator,  should  declare  that  there  should  be  no  dismember- 
ment of  that  immemorial  empire. 


34  MODERN   AMERICAN    SPEAKER. 

THE  "OPEN  DOOR''  POLICY  IN  CHINA. 


CUSHMAN  K.  DAVIS. 

(From  an  address  delivered  before  the  students  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  June  12,  1900.) 

The  subjection  of  China  to  full  intercourse  with  Western 
civilization  is  the  most  stupendous  secular  event  since  the 
discovery  of  America  by  Columbus. 

No  diplomatic  achievement  in  our  history,  excepting  the 
treaty  negotiated  by  Franklin  by  which  our  independence 
was  acknowledged,  and  the  conventions  by  which  Louisiana 
and  the  Provinces  of  Mexico  were  acquired,  can  be  placed 
before  this  negotiation.  It  did  not  expand  our  possession, 
but  it  will  expand  our  influence  and  ascendency  immeas- 
urably. It  is  the  result,  however,  of  the  two  expansions  as 
to  Louisiana  and  Mexico,  and  of  the  acquisition  of  the  Philip- 
pines, Alaska  and  Hawaii,  without  which  the  United  States 
would  have  been  the  most  remote  from,  instead  of  being  as 
it  is  now,  the  nearest  of  all  the  nations  to,  the  great  Asiatic 
market.  These  negotiations  bound  all  the  powers  reciprocally 
to  identity  and  equality  of  right  and  duty  as  to  everything 
which  can  pertain  to  commerce  and  intercourse  with  China. 

The  sovereignty  of  the  United  States  has  been  expanded 
immensely  by  the  war  with  Spain.  I  believe  that  for  this 
the  American  people  were  ordained.  There  need  be  no  fear 
for  the  future.  No  administration  will  ever  attempt,  it  will 
not  be  permitted  by  the  controlling  majesty  of  that  people 
to  attempt,  to  contract  that  sovereignty  within  the  limits 
from  which  it  has  expanded,  bearing  with  it  all  the  imperial 
powers  of  righteous  government,  regenerating  civilization  and 
irreversible  progress. 

With  all  this  the  United  States  will,  as  always  heretofore, 
stand  for  peace.  It  is  as  true  of  nations  as  it  is  of  the 
smallest  villages,  or  of  two  families,  or  of  two  men,  that 
peace  is  secured  by  obedience  to  that  precept  of  ^righteous 
selfishness — "mind  your  own  business."  We  shall  attend 
to  our  own  affairs.  We  shall  not  entangle  ourselves  in  the 
controversies  of  European  States;  nor,  by  any  unfriendly 
act,  intermeddle  with  that  which  does  not  concern  us.  Those 


CUSHMAN   K.    DAVIS.  35 

states  will  fight  to  the  utterance  their  own  wars  in  their 
own  way,  and  be  judges  for  themselves  of  the  causes  for 
which  those  wars  shall  be  waged. 

The  United  States  is  the  great  armed  Neutral  of  the  world. 
It  will  have  peace,  not  as  the  boon  of  a  suppliant  non-com- 
batant, but  as  the  right  of  a  peace-loving,  armored,  puissant 
nation  whose  rights  are  secured  by  its  manifest  ability  to 
cause  other  nations  to  respect  them. 


TERRITORIAL  EXPANSION. 

EX-GOVERNOR   C.    A.    CULBERSON. 

(From  a  speech  delivered  at  Winsboro,  Texas,  October  8,  1898.^ 
In  harmony  with  its  advocacy  of  a  strong  central  govern- 
ment, inviting  extravagance  and  profligacy,  as  well  as  per- 
verting the  high  and  original  mission  of  the  nation,  the  Re- 
publican party  would  expand  our  territory  beyond  the  limits 
of  this  hemisphere.  It  would  abrogate  the  wise  policy  an- 
nounced by  President  Monroe,  and  now  a  part  of  the  law  of 
nations,  that  we  would  not  become  involved  in  European 
affairs,  but  would  confine  ourselves  to  this  hemisphere,  and 
regard  with  disfavor  all  efforts  to  establish  monarchical  gov- 
ernments upon  it,  or  extend  those  already  founded.  It  would 
amount  to  national  bigotry  and  reverse  the  history  of  a  cen- 
tury to  declare  against  foreign  interference  with  the  western 
hemisphere,  and  yet  presume  to  invade  the  eastern 
hemisphere.  The  annexation  of  the  Philippine  Islands  and 
the  revolutionary  policy  it  would  inaugurate,  to  which  the 
Republican  party  is  committed,  would  embroil  us  in  the  quar- 
rels of  Europe  and  Asia;  compel  the  enlargement  of  the  army 
and  navy  to  the  extent  of  oppressive  taxation  to  maintain 
them;  admit  to  citizenship  ten  millions  of  people  who  are 
aliens  in  race  and  religion,  and  by  reason  of  their  character 
and  distance  from  the  United  States,  incapable  of  assimila^ 
tion  with  us;  and  turn  the  thought  and  aspirations  of  our 


36  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

people  from  the  ways  of  peace  and  happiness  to  those  of 
armies,  and  war,  and  conquest.  Under  such  a  policy  this 
mighty  Republic,  dedicated  to  manhood  liberties  in  the 
precious  blood  of  heroes,  intoxicated  with  martial  glory  and 
the  ephemeral  splendors  of  empire,  would  be  moved  from  its 
high  purpose  and  driven  from  its  noble  mission.  On  the 
contrary,  the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  as  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  territory,  would  avert  these  perils  to  our  national 
peace  and  safety.  Broadly  speaking,  it  would  be  confined 
to  this  hemisphere,  which  would  relieve  us  of  foreign  environ- 
ment; avoid  the  necessity  of  a  burdensome  army  and  navy 
for  its  defense;  enable  us,  by  proximity  to  the  territory,  to 
people  it  with  our  own  citizens  and  gradually  assimilate  the 
population  to  our  own;  enlarge  our  trade  and  commerce; 
strengthen  and  fortify  and  perpetuate  our  dominion  of  the 
continent,  and  yet  preserve  unimpaired  our  institutions  and 
civilization.  By  the  annexation  of  Cuba,  when  it  may  be 
done  consistently  with  our  declaration  made  at  the  outset 
of  the  war,  the  pestilential  fevers  which  originate  there,  and 
which  yearly  paralyze  trade  and  destroy  life  in  the  South, 
would  be  averted;  our  commerce  greatly  expanded;  our  mas- 
tery of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  countries  bordering  upon 
it  secured;  the  recognized  policy  of  the  Democratic  party 
followed,  and  our  mission  as  the  dominant  and  enlightened 
power  of  the  continent  advanced.  Expansion  of  territory 
within  these  limits  has  always  been  the  policy  of  the  Democ- 
racy. It  originated  with  its  founder  and  philosopher;  was 
often  pursued  by  its  subsequent  leaders,  and  upon  repeated 
occasions  has  been  publicly  and  solemnly  declared.  If  there 
be  Democrats  who  object  to  this,  we  answer  that  we  are 
walking  in  the  footsteps  of  the  fathers,  and  advancing  the 
manifest  destiny  of  the  Republic. 

Jefferson  declared  with  deep  significance  that  we  would 
dominate  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  the  acquisition  of  Cuba, 
and  then  look  northward.  There  was  in  this  neither  dream 
nor  prophecy  of  universal  empire,  but  of  continental  solidity 
and  world  reaching  influence.  We  are  not  legislating  for 
today,  or  tomorrow,  or  next  week,  or  next  year  only.  We 
are  building  for  all  the  ages.  Not  in  our  time,  nor  for  many 
generations  to  come,  perhaps,  but  if  we  could  rise  to  the 


C.    A.   CULBERSON.  37 

height  of  the  centuries  it  might  be  that  the  boundaries  of 
this  great  Republic  without  war,  or  conquest,  or  wrong,  and 
in  spirit  with  its  struggle  for  the  betterment  of  mankind, 
will  be  the  two  great  oceans  and  the  Northern  and  South- 
ern seas,  and  its  power  and  influence  for  enlightenment  and 
liberty  as  boundless  as  the  globe. 


38  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

"OUT  OF  THE  PAST." 


DR.   LYMAN   ABBOTT. 

(Selected   from   a   sermon   delivered   before   the  students    of   Har- 
vard University,  March  26,  1899.) 

National  history  abundantly  illustrates  the  truth  of  the 
proposition  that  movement  is  not  progress.  Spain  was 
anchored  to  the  past;  she  was  bound  by  her  own  traditions; 
she  knew  no  progress.  Spain  had  nineteenth  century  guns 
and  sixteenth  century  men  behind  them;  we  know  what 
came.  On  the  other  hand,  France  broke  with  her  past,  cut 
sharply  asunder  from  it.  She  brought  together  a  convention 
of  men  who  were,  on  the  whole,  patriotic  and  prophetic  and 
desired  well  for  their  country;  but  they  sundered  her  from 
all  the  traditions  of  the  past,  and  it  was  many  years  before 
she  could  begin  again  a  new  course  of  progress.  Great 
Britain  has  held  to  her  traditions,  but  has  not  been  tied  by 
them.  She  has  made  her  future  grow  out  of  her  past,  and 
has  kept  the  connection  between  the  past  and  the  future; 
and  the  history  of  Great  Britain  has  been  a  history  of  con- 
tinuous and,  on  the  whole,  of  almost  unbroken  progress. 

America  has  turned  a  page  in  her  National  history.  What 
shall  she  write  on  the  new  page?  She  may,  on  the  one 
hand,  say  nothing  which  has  not  been  written  in  the  past. 
She  may  bind  herself  by  traditions  of  the  past;  she  may  try 
to  be  in  the  future  exactly  what  she  was  in  the  past — and 
she  will  not  succeed.  On  the  other  hand,  she  may  break 
asunder  from  that  past  entirely.  She  may  say  "thus  far  we 
have  grown  rich  and  strong  and  prosperous  by  principles 
of  liberty  and  self-government,  and  now  we  will  take  a  new 
tack  and  see  what  we  can  do  by  principles  of  imperialism 
and  despotism."  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  course  will 
give  her  progress.  We  are  not  to  be  bound  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past.  Traditions  are  not  manacles  to  bind  us, 
but  are  harness  for  us  to  use  in  the  forward  movement. 
There  is  no  more  reason  why  the  counsels  which  were  ap- 
propriate in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  should 
bind  us  in  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  than  why  the. creeds 
that  were  the  best  thought  of  the  seventeenth  century  should 


DR.   LYMAN   ABBOTT.  39 

bind  us  in  the  nineteenth.  We  must  do  our  own  thinking, 
and  guide  our  own  ship  by  our  own  wisdom.  But  we  must 
not  break  away  from  the  past,  and  we  must  learn  how  to 
develop  the  future  out  of  the  past. 

And  the  nation  has  a  right,  young  men,  to  look  to  a  great 
university  like  this,  and  to  the  young  men  who  are  coming 
forth  from  this  university,  to  guide  it  in  the  progress  of 
the  future.  It  has  a  right  to  look  to  you  to  tell  the  nation 
what  shall  be  in  the  larger  life  that  lies  before  it.  The 
country  needs  leaders.  It  needs  them  sadly.  It  is  glad  to 
welcome  them — so  glad  that  it  takes  them,  not  infrequently, 
without  asking  whence  they  have  come  or  whither  they  lead. 
You  have  eternity  before  you.  Begin,  not  from  an  imaginary 
past,  to  which  you  can  never  go  back;  not  from  an  imaginary 
future  which  you  have  not  reached.  Begin  from  the  present, 
with  all  its  treasury  of  good — ay,  with  all  its  treasury  of 
evil.  And,  keeping  the  pathway  unbroken  from  the  past 
to  the  future,  lead  on  to  life,  to  larger  life  and  yet  larger 
life,  answering  the  call  of  Him  whose  call  is  ever  upwards. 


40  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

COLONIES  AND  THE  CONSTITUTION. 


JOSEPH    WELDON    BAILEY,    OF   TEXAS. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 

1900,  the  House  having  under  consideration  the 

Tariff  Bill  for  Porto  Rico.) 

I  understand  and  appreciate  the  situation  of  the  gentle- 
men who  are  supporting  this  bill.  They  realize  the  utter 
impossibility  of  governing  colonial  possessions  according  to 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  they  have  resolyed 
upon  the  dangerous  course  of  boldly  setting  the  constitu- 
tion aside.  If  I  could  derive  a  personal  satisfaction  from  any 
circumstance  which  I  deemed  a  misfortune  to  my  country  I 
would  rejoice  in  their  decision,  because  it  abundantly  con- 
firms what  I  said  in  the  very  beginning  of  this  controversy. 
Eighteen  months  ago,  when  the  fever  of  war  and  conquest 
was  in  the  blood  of  our  people,  when  men  talked  only  of 
battles  and  victories,  when  the  music  of  the  fife  and  drum 
aroused  our  martial  spirit,  I  did  not  yield  to  this  general 
excitement;  but  in  the  midst  of  it  all  I  stood  unmoved  and 
warned  my  countrymen  that  the  constitution  of  this  free 
American  Republic  could  not  be  applied  to  colonies.  When 
emotional  statesmen  cried  out  to  know  who  would  take  down 
the  flag  I  dared  to  say  that  I  would  take  it  down  from 
any  land  where  the  constitution  of  my  country  could  not 
follow  it. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  party,  are  you  ready  to 
present  to  the  world  the  anomaly  of  a  government  restrained 
by  a  constitution  in  one  quarter  of  the  globe  and  yet  pos- 
sessed of  despotic  powers  in  all  other  regions  of  the  earth? 
How  long  will  our  constitution  shield  us  and  our  children 
if  we  withhold  its  protection  from  the  meanest  under  our 
jurisdiction?  It  was  ordained  to  limit  the  powers  of  this 
government  at  all  places  and  over  all  men;  the  greatest  are 
not  exempt  from  its  limitations,  nor  can  its  protection  be 
denied  to  the  humblest. 

Under  this  new  and  strange  philosophy  which  we  are  in- 
vited to  embrace,  the  people  of  our  new  possessions  will 
neither  perform  its  obligations  nor  enjoy  its  blessings.  To 


JOSEPH   WELDON   BAILEY.  41 

them  those  sacred  guarantees  which  we  hold  more  precious 
than  our  lives  are  meaningless.  Their  houses  may  be 
searched;  the  altars  of  their  religion  may  be  leveled  to  the 
ground;  soldiers  may  be  quartered  on  them  in  time  of  peace, 
and  when  they  have  peacefully  assembled  to  petition  for  a 
redress  of  their  grievances  they  can  be  dispersed  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet.  They  can  be  arrested  without  as  warrant; 
they  can  be  tried  without  a  jury,  or  condemned  without  a 
trial.  The  greed  of  one  American  pro-consul  may  strip  them 
of  their  property  and  the  lust  of  another  may  despoil  their 
homes.  And  yet,  sir,  against  these  unspeakable  atrocities 
they  cannot  invoke  those  great  provisions  which  our  fathers 
deemed  the  heritage  of  all  freemen. 

Gentlemen,  are  you  ready  to  divide  our  people  into  citizens 
and  subjects — half  monarchy  and  half  republic?  Let  us  bor- 
row the  immortal  words  of  Lincoln,  and  applying  them  to 
new  conditions,  let  me  remind  you  that  this  Republic  cannot 
endure  one-half  free  and  the  other  half  slave.  Either  we 
must  all  be  citizens  or  in  time  we  shall  become  subjects.  I 
did  not  want  these  alien  and  inferior  races,  and  I  fervently 
pray  that  we  may  yet  be  delivered  from  the  impossible  task 
of  assimilating  and  governing  them.  But,  sir,  if  you  will 
take  them,  you  must  make  them  a  part  of  us;  we  must  share 
our  destinies  with  them  and  they  must  share  their  destinies 
with  us,  for  there  is  no  place  under  this  form  of  government 
of  ours  for  that  wretched  creature  without  a  citizenship. 
Every  man  who  stands  beneath  the  ample  folds  of  that  flag 
which  adorns  yonder  speaker's  stand  shall  have  the  right  to 
face  the  world,  and  with  that  prouder  than  Roman  boast 
upon  his  lips,  proclaim,  I  am  an  American  citizen. 


42  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

NO  COLONIES. 


G.  G.  VEST,  OF  MISSOURI. 
(From  a  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate,  December  12,   1898.) 

It  seems  to  me  peculiarly  appropriate  at  this  time  to  exam- 
ine what  are  the  powers  of  Congress  in  regard  to  the  acquisi- 
tion and  government  of  new  territory.  When  eminent  states- 
men ridicule  "the  swaddling  clothes"  made  by  Washington 
and  Madison,  it  is  surely  time  to  ask  whether  the  American 
people  are  ready  to  follow  these  apostles  of  the  New  Evangel 
in  revolutionizing  our  Government,  and  trampling  upon  the 
teachings  and  policies  which  have  made  us  great  and  pros- 
perous. 

Every  schoolboy  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  which  gave  us  existence  as  a  people,^was  fought 
for  four  years  exclusively  against  the  colonial  system  of 
Europe.  Our  fathers  did  not  in  the  commencement  of  that 
struggle  contemplate  independence  from  the  mother  country. 
When  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  burned  the  British  war 
sloop  Gaspee  in  Narragansett  Bay,  and  the  people  of  Mas- 
sachusetts threw  overboard  the  cargo  of  tea  in  Boston  har- 
bor, they  acted  as  British  subjects,  proclaiming  their  loyalty 
to  the  Crown  of  England.  When  Thomas  Jefferson,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Richard  Henry  Lee  met  at  the  old  Raleigh  tavern 
in  Williamsburg,  Va.,  and  indorsed  the  action  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Massachusetts,  they  proclaimed  themselves  Eng- 
lish subjects,  loyal  to  the  King,  and  only  demanded  the  rights 
that  were  given  to  them  as  Englishmen  by  Magna  Charta  and 
the  Bill  of  Rights. 

What  is  the  colonial  system  against  which  our  fathers  pro- 
tested? It  is  based  upon  the  fundamental  idea  that  the 
people  of  immense  areas  of  territory  can  be  held  as  subjects, 
never  to  become  citizens;  that  they  must  pay  taxes  and  be 
impoverished  by  governmental  exaction  without  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  legislation  under  which  they  live. 

Against  taxation  without  representation  our  fathers  fought 
for  the  first  four  years  of  the  Revolution,  struggling  against 
the  system  which  England  then  attempted  to  impose  upon 
them,  and  which  was  graphically  described  by  Thomas  Jef- 


G.    G.   VEST.  43 

ferson  as  the  belief  that  nine-tenths  of  mankind  were  born 
bridled  and  saddled  and  the  other  tenth  booted  and  spurred 
to  ride  them. 

When  war  became  flagrant  and  battles  had  been  fought 
and  blood  had  been  shed,  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  there  must  be  final  separation  from 
the  British  throne.  Thomas  Jefferson  then  penned  the  im- 
mortal Declaration  upon  the  basic  idea  that  all  governments 
derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  incredible  that  the  men  who  fought 
for  seven  long  years,  without  money,  without  men  almost, 
and  without  arms,  against  the  proudest  and  strongest  nation 
in  the  world,  resisting  the  doctrine  upon  which  the  colonial 
system  of  Europe  is  based,  should,  after  being  rescued  by 
Providence  from  its  thraldom,  deliberately  put  this  doctrine 
in  the  written  Constitution  framed  to  govern  them  and  their 
children. 

Sir,  we  are  told  that  this  country  can  do  anything,  Consti- 
tution or  no  Constitution.  We  are  a  great  people— great 
in  war,,  great  in  peace — but  we  are  not  greater  than  the  people 
who  once  conquered  the  world,  not  with  long-range  guns 
and  steel-clad  ships,  but  with  the  short  sword  of  the  Roman 
legion  and  the  wooden  gaDeys  that  sailed  across  the 
Adriatic.  The  colonial  system  destroyed  all  hope  of  repub- 
licanism in  the  olden  time.  It  is  an  appanage  of  monarchy. 
It  can  exist  in  no  free  country,  because  it  uproots  and  elim- 
inates the  basis  of  all  republican  institutions,  that  govern- 
ments derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. 

I  know  not  what  may  be  done  with  the  glamor  of  foreign 
conquest  and  the  greed  of  the  commercial  and  money-making 
classes  in  this  country.  For  myself,  I  would  rather  quit  pub- 
lic life  and  would  be  willing  to  risk  life  itself  rather  than 
give  my  consent  to  this  fantastic  and  wicked  attempt  to 
revolutionize  our  Government  and  substitute  the  principles 
of  our  hereditary  enemies  for  the  teachings  of  Washington 
and  his  associates. 


44  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

BIMETALLISM  OR  INDUSTRIAL  SLAVERY. 


B.  R.  TILLMAN,  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
(From   a   speech   in   the   United   States   Senate,   January  29,   1896.) 

The  money  changers  are  in  the  temple  of  our  liberties  and 
have  bought  the  sentinels  on  guard.  It  may  be  too  late. 
God  grant  it  be  not  so;  but  this  great  Republic  can  only 
be  saved  from  the  miseries  of  revolution  and  internecine 
strife  in  the  near  future  by  its  citizens  casting  aside  blind 
allegiance  to  party  and  marshaling  themselves  under  the 
banner  of  Jefferson's  Democracy  and  Lincoln's  Republican- 
ism, determined  to  restore  the  Republic  to  the  form  in  which 
it  was  left  to  us  by  the  fathers,  and  since  consecrated  by 
the  blood  of  brothers,  shed  in  civil  war,  engendered  and 
brought  about  by  just  such  statesmanship  as  we  have  here. 
The  encroachments  of  the  Federal  judiciary,  and  the  supine- 
ness  and  venality — corruption,  I  may  say — of  the  representa- 
tive branches  of  the  Government  are  causes  of  deep  concern 
to  all  thinking  and  patriotic  men.  We  are  fast  drifting  into 
government  by  injunction  in  the  interest  of  monopolies  and 
corporations,  and  the  Supreme  Court,  by  one  corrupt  vote, 
annuls  an  act  of  Congress  looking  to  the  taxation  of  the 
rich. 

A  day  of  reckoning  will  come,  unless  there  is  no 
longer  a  just  God  in  heaven;  and  when  it  does 
come,  woe  be  unto  those  who  have  been  among  the  oppres- 
sors of  the  people.  The  present  struggle  is  unfortunately 
too  like  that  which  preceded  the  late  civil  war,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  sectional.  The  creditor  and  the  manufacturing  States 
of  the  North  and  East,  those  which  have  grown  inordinately 
wealthy  at  the  expense  of  the  producing  classes  of  the  South 
and  West,  are  urging  this  policy  with  the  besotted  blindness 
of  Belshazzar.  The  old  slaveholders  of  the  South  were  not 
more  arrogant  or  more  determined.  "The  sordid  despotism 
of  wealth,"  to  use  the  apt  phrase  of  Justice  Brown,  is  already 
felt  throughout  the  land.  The  Representatives  in  Congress 
from  those  States,  without  regard  to  party  affiliations,  are 
solidly  arrayed  under  the  banner  of  monopoly  and  the  gold 
standard.  Greed  and  self-interest  seem  alone  to  actuate  them. 


B.   R.    TILLMAN.  45 

Self  preservation  and  patriotism  should  bind  the  South  dnd 
West  in  equally  strong  bonds  of  union.  We  cannot  afford 
to  longer  put  party  above  country. 

You  have  already  been  told  in  glowing  language  by  the 
eloquent  Senator  from  Missouri  that  the  conflict  is  "irre- 
pressible," and  it  is  easy  to  see  from  the  temper  and  feeling 
of  the  equally  distinguished  Senator  from  Colorado  and  other 
Western  Senators  that  the  struggle  for  the  new  emancipa- 
tion has  begun.  And  the  new  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  which 
is  drawn,  not  by  the  surveyor,  but  by  the  denial  of  the 
natural,  and  inalienable  "right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness"  to  a  large  majority  of  citizens,  will  sooner 
or  later  bring  together  in  the  bonds  of  union  the  toiling  and 
now  down-trodden  masses  of  the  cities  and  the  equally 
desperate  masses  of  the  country;  agrarianism  and  commun- 
ism will  join  hands.  There  are  millions  now  on  the  march, 
and  they  tramp,  tramp,  tramp;  tramp  the  sidewalks  hunting 
work  and  tramp  the  highways  begging  bread.  Unless  relief 
comes  they  will  some  day  take  a  notion  to  tramp  to  Wash- 
ington, with  rifles  in  their  hands,  to  regain  their  liberties 
which  have  been  stolen  from  them  or  which  their  representa- 
tives have  sold;  and  the  hitherto  conservative  force  of  the 
Republic,  the  well-to-do  agricultural  class,  will  lift  no  hand 
to  stay  the  march,  but  join  it.  God  grant  that  our  country 
may  be  spared  the  enactment  of  such  scenes  as  were  wit- 
nessed in  Paris  in  1789.  But  the  fair  flower  of  liberty  planted 
by  Jefferson  in  the  immortal  Declaration  of  the  4th  of  July, 
1776,  watered  by  the  blood  of  our  Revolutionary  sires  under 
Washington,  cannot  be  uprooted- or  smothered  by  the  noxious 
weeds  of  monopoly  and  class  privilege  without  bloodshed; 
and  a  cataclysm,  which  will  give  us  a  military  despotism, 
or  leave  the  Republic  redeemed,  regenerated,  and  disen- 
thralled, is  just  as  sure  to  come  as  yonder  sun  shines  in  the 
heavens,  unless  we  do  our  duty  here  and  take  the  hands  of 
these  conspirators  off  the  people's  throats  and  give  them  an 
opportunity  to  breathe,  to  work,  to  live. 


46  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


EXPANSION. 


HENRY    L.     WATTERSON. 

The  traditional  stay-at-home  and  raind-your-own-business 
policy  laid  down  by  Washington  was  wise  for  a  weak  and 
struggling  nation,  and,  if  it  could  be  adhered  to,  would  be 
wise  for  every  people.  But  each  of  the  centuries  has  its  own 
tale  of  progress  to  tell,  each  raises  up  its  own  problems  to 
be  solved.  The  difference  between  a  scattered  population, 
fringing  the  east  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  eighty  millions  of 
people  occupying  and  traversing  the  continent  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific,  is  too  great  to  admit  of  contrast. 

As  no  preceding  cycle  the  intervening  century  has  revolu- 
tionized the  world.  Another  century  may  witness  the  trans- 
fer of  human  ambitions  and  activities  from  Europe  and 
America  to  Asia  and  Africa.  The  Pacific,  and  not  the  At- 
lantic, may  become  the  washbasin  of  the  universe.  Can  the 
United  States  stand  apart  and  aside  while  these  movements 
of  mankind,  like  a  running  stream,  pass  them  by,  an  isolated 
and  helpless  mass  of  accumulated  and  corrupting  riches?  We 
could  not  if  we  would  and  we  should  not  if  we  could. 

We  must  adapt  ourselves  to  the  changed  order.  We  must 
make  a  new  map.  The  vista,  as  it  opens  to  our  sight,  is  not 
so  great  as  would  have  been  the  vista  of  Texas  and  Cali- 
fornia, Florida  and  Alaska  to  the  eye  of  Washington.  For 
all  his  wisdom  the  father  of  his  country  could  not  foresee 
electricity,  nor  estimate  the  geographic  contractions  it  would 
bring.  Already  the  old  world  is  receding.  Another  world  is 
coming  into  view.  The  statesmanship  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury must  address  itself  to  this  and  will  be  largely  con- 
structive in  its  character. 

The  United  States  from  now  on  is  destined  to  be  a  world 
power.  Henceforth  its  foreign  policy  will  need  to  be  com- 
pletely reconstructed.  From  a  nation  of  shopkeepers  we 
become  a  nation  of  warriors.  We  escape  the  menace  and 
peril  of  socialism  and  agrarianism,  as  England  has  escaped 
them,  by  a  policy  of  colonization  and  conquest.  From  a 
provincial  huddle  of  petty  sovereignties,  held  together  by  a 


HENRY    L.   WATTERSON.  47 

rope  of  sand,  we  rise  to  the  dignity  and  prowess  of  an  im- 
perial republic  incomparably  greater  than  Rome. 

It  is  true  that  we  exchange  domestic  dangers  for  foreign 
dangers,  but  in  every  direction  we  multiply  the  opportunities 
of  the  people.  We  risk  Caesarism,  certainly;  but  even  Caesar- 
ism  is  preferable  to  anarchism.  We  risk  wars,  but  a  man 
has  but  one  time  to  die,  and,  either  in  peace  or  war,  he  is 
not  likely  to  die  until  his  time  comes.  In  short,  anything 
is  better  than  the  pace  we  were  going  before  these  present 
forces  were  started  into  life.  Already  the  young  manhood 
of  the  country  is  as  a  goodly  brand  snatched  from  the  burn- 
ing and  given  a  perspective  replete  with  noble  deeds  and 
elevating  ideas. 


48  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

EXPANSION. 


JACOB  GOULD  SCHURMAN. 

The  greatest  expansionist  of  the  last  century  was  Wash- 
ington himself.  Scientists  tell  us  of  the  reversion  of  organic 
beings,  after  the  lapse  of  generations,  to  the  form  or  habits 
of  an  earlier  type.  If  this  law  of  biology  holds  in  politics,  as 
I  believe  it  does,  then  our  Chief  Magistrate  in  his  policy  of 
expansion,  would  seem  to  have  been  possessed  by  the  spirit 
of  Washington,  who  extended  the  national  domain  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi,  or  of  Jefferson,  who,  impelled 
by  the  same  imperious  instinct,  trampled  under  foot  his 
dearest  political  theories  and  secured  for  the  Union  the  vast 
territory  beyond  the  Mississippi,  where  the  flag  now  waves 
over  the  prosperous  and  intelligent  citizens  of  a  dozen  pop- 
ulous States. 

This  century  is  unlike  all  the  centuries  that  have  gone 
before.  Our  most  distinguished  scientists  have  christened 
it  "the  wonderful  century."  And  so,  indeed,  it  is,  not  mere- 
ly in  the  free  hyperbole  of  popular  speech,  but  in  the  severe 
exactitude  of  scientific  description.  A  miracle  is  a  departure 
from  established  ways,  and  the  whole  history  of  mankind 
shows  nothing  that  could  have  augured  the  intellectual  and 
material  achievements  of  the  last  three  generations. 

What  is  the  token  of  this  wonderful  century?  I  say,  in 
a  word,  expansion — a  boundless  extension  of  human  know- 
ledge and  a  vast  enlargement  of  human  power.  In^this  cen- 
tury, for  the  first  time,  the  might  of  the  intellect  has  given 
dominion  over  the  forces  of  nature.  The  miracle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  is  the  systematic  harnessing  of  the  pow- 
ers of  nature.  The  last  three  generations  have  learned  more 
about  the  universe  in  which  we  live  than  all  the  earlier 
generations  of  mankind.  The  nineteenth  century  has  been 
a  century  of  expanding  knowledge,  a  century  of  abounding 
invention,  a  century  of  amazing  increase  in  the  means  of 
communication  and  transportation. 

Into  our  reluctant  lap  the  hand  of  destiny  dropped  the 
Philippines.  We  have  accepted  them,  and  with  the  aid 


JACOB   GOULD   SCHURMAN.  49 

of  Providence  we  propose  to  discharge  our  responsibilities 
to  them,  though  territorial  expansion  was  never  dreamed  of 
when  the  war  began,  and  we  did  not  desire  it  when  the  war 
closed.  Territorial  expansion  has  been  the  law  of  the  Na- 
tion's life.  Thanks  to  steam  and  electricity,  which  abol- 
ish distance,  the  modern  state  admits  of  unbounded  ter- 
ritorial organization  without  loss  of  supreme  control  at  the 
center  or  of  local  self-government  in  any  of  its  members. 
The  equipoise  between  central  sovereignty  and  local  in- 
dependence is  the  balance  wheel  of  the  American  system. 
This  is  our  contribution  to  the  politics  of  the  world.  And 
this  is  the  surest  guarantee  of  the  performance  of  our  Re- 
public. 

We  cannot  be  true  to  ourselves  or  loyal  to  the  new  obliga- 
tions that  have  come  upon  us  unless  we  recognize  that  this 
last  expansion  of  our  Republic  is  a  summons  to  work  for 
the  material,  intellectual  and  moral  elevation  of  the  Fili- 
pinos, to  teach  them  to  practice  in  ever-growing  measure 
the  unwonted  lessons  of  self  government,  and  by  so  doing 
to  make  our  flag,  which  is  already  the  symbol  of  irresistible 
power,  the  star  of  promise  and  the  emblem  of  benediction 
to  all  the  oppressed  peoples  of  the-  benighted  Orient, 


50  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

"LEST  WE  FORGET." 


DAVID    STARR    JORDAN. 

(Extract   from   the  President's   address   to    the   Graduating-   Class 
of    Stanford    University,    June,    1898.) 

Patriotism  is  the  will  to  serve  one's  country,  to  make 
one's  country  better  worth  serving.  It  is  a  course  of  action 
rather  than  a  sentiment.  The  shrilling  of  the  mob  is  not 
patriotism.  It  is  not  patriotism  to  trample  on  the  Spanish 
flag,  to  burn  fire-crackers,  or  to  twist  the  Lion's  tail.  The 
"glory"  of  war  turns  our  attention  from  civic  affairs. 
Neglect  invites  corruption.  Noble  and  necessary  as  was  our 
Civil  war,  we  have  not  yet  recovered  from  its  degrading  in- 
fluences. The  war  with  Spain  has  united  at  last  the  North 
and  South,  we  say.  So  at  least  it  appears.  When  Fitzhugh 
Lee  is  called  a  Yankee,  and  all  the  haughty  Lees  seem  proud 
of  the  designation,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  old  lines  of 
division  exist  no  longer.  But  our  present  solidarity  shows 
that  the  nation  was  sound  already,  else  a  month  could  not 
have  welded  it  together. 

It  is  twenty-eight  years  ago  to-day  that  a  rebel  soldier 
who  says, 

"I  am  a  Southerner, 

I  loved  the  South  and  dared  for  her 

To  fight  from  Lookout  to  the  sea 

With  her  proud  banner  over  me." 

stood  before  the  ranks  of  the  Grand  Army  and  spoke  these 
words: 

"I  stand  and  say  that  you  were  right; 

I  greet  you  with  uncovered  head, 

Remembering  many  a  thundrous  fight 

When  whistling  death  between  us  sped; 

I  clasp  the  hand  that  made  my  scars, 

I  cheer  the  flag  my  foemen  bore, 

I  shout  for  joy  to  see  the  stars 

All  on  our  common  shield  once  more." 
This  was  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and  all 
this  time  the  great  loyal  South  has  patiently  and  unflinch- 
ingly accepted  war's  terrible  results.    It  is  not  strange,  then, 


DAVID   STARR   JORDAN.  51 

that  she  shows  her  loyalty  to-day.  The  "Solid  South,"  the 
bugaboo  of  politicians,  the  cloak  of  Northern  venality,  has 
passed  away  forever.  The  warm  response  to  American 
courage,  in  whatever  section  or  party,  shows  that  with  all 
our  surface  divisions,  we  of  America  are  one  in  heart.  And 
this  very  solidarity  should  make  us  pause  before  entering 
upon  a  career  of  militarism.  Unforgetting,  open-eyed,  count- 
ing all  the  cost,  let  us  make  our  decision.  The  federal  re- 
public, the  imperial  republic — which  shall  it  be? 

The  policing  of  far-off  islands,  the  maintenance  of  the 
machinery  of  imperialism,  are  petty  things  beside  the  duties 
which  the  higher  freedom  brings.  To  turn  to  these  empty 
and  showy  affairs  is  to  neglect  our  own  business  for  the 
gossip  of  our  neighbors.  Such  work  may  be  a  matter  of 
necessity;  it  should  not  be  a  source  of  pride.  The  political 
greatness  of  England  has  never  lain  in  her  navies  nor  the 
force  of  her  arms.  It  has  lain  in  her  struggles  for  individual 
freedom,  Not  Marlborough,  nor  Nelson,  nor  Wellington  is 
its  exponent,  let  us  say  rather  Pym  and  Hampden,  and  Glad- 
stone and  Bright.  The  real  problems  of  England  have  always 
been  at  home.  The  pomp  of  imperialism,  the  display  of 
naval  power,  the  commercial  control  of  India  and  China — 
all  these  are  as  the  bread  and  circuses  by  which  the  Roman 
emperors  held  the  mob  from  their  thrones.  They  keep  the 
people  busy  and  put  off  the  clay  of  final  reckoning.  "Gild 
the  dome  of  the  Invalides,"  was  Napoleon's  cynical  command 
when  he  learned  that  the  people  of  Paris  were  becoming 
desperate. 

A  foe  is  always  at  the  gates  of  a  nation  with  a  vigorous 
foreign  policy.  The  British  nation  is  hated  and  feared  of 
all  nations  except  our  own.  Only  her  eternal  vigilance 
keeps  the  vultures  from  her  coasts.  Eternal  vigilance  of  this 
sort  will  strengthen  governments,  will  build  up  nations;  it 
will  not  in  like  degree  make  men.  The  day  of  the  nations 
as  nations  is  passing.  National  ambitions,  national  hopes, 
national  aggrandizements;  all  these  may  become  public 
nuisances.  Imperialism,  like  feudalism,  belongs  to  the  past. 
The  men  of  the  world  as  men,  not  as  nations,  are  drawing 
closer  together.  The  needs  of  commerce  are  stronger  than 
the  will  of  nations,  and  the  final  guarantee  of  peace  and 


52  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

good  will  among  men  will  be  not  "the  parliament  of  nations," 
but  the  self-control  of  men. 

Some  great  changes  in  our  system  are  inevitable,  and  be- 
long to  the  course  of  natural  progress.  Against  them  I  have 
nothing  to  say.  Whatever  our  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  we  should  play  it  manfully.  But  with  all  this  I  be- 
lieve that  the  movement  toward  broad  dominion  would  be 
a  step  downward.  It  would  be  to  turn  from  our  highest  pur- 
poses to  drift  with  the  current  of  "manifest  destiny."  It 
would  be  not  to  do  the  work  of  America,  but  to  follow  the 
ways  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

"God  of  our  fathers,  known  of  old — 

Lord  of  our  far-flung  battle  line — 

Beneath  whose  awful  Hand  we  hold 

Dominion  over  palm  and  pine; 

Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 

Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies, 
The  captains  and  the  kings  depart — 
Still  stands  Thine  ancient  Sacrifice, 
An  humble  and  a  contrite  heart. 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

Far-called  our  uavies  melt  away — 
On  dune  and  headland  sinks  the  fire — 
Lo,  all  our  pomp  of  yesterday. 
Is  one  with  Nineveh  and  Tyre! 
Judge  of  the  nations,  spare  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget." 


CHARLES   EMORY   WEDDINGTON.  53 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXON. 


CHARLES    EMORY    WEDDINGTON. 
(From  a  speech  delivered  at  Athens,  Ga.,  February  20,  1900.) 

England  was  the  cradle  in  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  principles 
were  first  rocked  and  the  home  in  which  this  God-favored 
race  grew  and  waxed  strong  and  mighty. 

Toward  England  every  phase  of  the  world's  civilization 
was  destined  to  wend  its  way.  When  Christianity  sprang 
from  the  humble  manger  in  the  plains  of  Judea,  after  a 
stormy  career  it  was  wafted  in  gentle  breezes  to  the  shores 
of  Britany,  and  there  it  found  a  lasting  receptacle  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

When  Grecian  learning  was  drifting,  as  it  were,  aimlessly 
about  the  ruins  of  blighted  Europe,  it  finally  found  an  avenue 
into  the  heart  of  England,  and  there  it  was  fostered  with  a 
new  zeal  by  the  active  intellect  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

When  Roman  laws,  and  Roman  customs,  and  Roman  tradi- 
tions seemed  all  but  lost  to  the  world,  they  were  carried  in 
peaceful  messages  across  the  British  channel,  and  there  they 
contributed  an  immeasurable  allotment  to  the  strength  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon. 

Well  might  it  be  said  that  civilization  has  been  blessed 
with  the  learning  of  the  Grecian,  the  law  of  the  Roman, 
the  religion  of  the  Judean  and  the  manhood  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon. 

When,  indeed,  this  new  race  sprang  like  magic  upon  the 
stage  of  action,  strong  and  vigorous,  brave  and  true,  its 
every  fiber  teeming  and  pulsing  with  energy  and  enthusiasm 
— a  type  of  manhood,  the  noblest,  the  most  courageous  and 
sublime,  was  born  into  the  world,  and  the  world  was  blessed 
by  its  advent. 

And  so  all  the  essential  elements  of  the  past  political,  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  growth,  were  harmonized  each  to 
each,  and,  as  a  beautiful  united  whole,  were  implanted  in 
the  fertile  being  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  with  this  motive 
power  of  Anglo-Saxon  manhood  results  were  accomplished 
that  have  thrilled  the  world.  The  rapidity  with  which  our 


54  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

race  sprang  upon  the  scene  of  action  is,  indeed,  a  marvel, 
but  the  eagerness  with  which  it  grasped  the  helm  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  ease  with  which  it  guided  that  old  shipwrecked 
and  distorted  vessel  to  the  shore  of  safety,  is  phenomenal. 

To  say  that  these  precious  relics  of  past  ages  which  were 
given  over  to  his  care  and  keeping  were  raised  again  to 
their  wonted  high  standard  is  putting  it  mildly.  Indeed, 
after  this  old  ship  had  been  piloted  to  the  shore  of  safety. 
and  after  she  had  been  repaired  and  renovated  with  in- 
genious skill,  she  was  started  on  her  journey  anew  and 
guided  down  the  ages  by  the  Anglo-Saxon's  watchful  eye; 
and  never  since  he  has  assumed  command  of  her  destiny 
has  this  grand  old  ship  of  civilization  been  checked  or 
thwarted  in  her  noble  career;  until  today  she  is  traveling 
onward  with  a  rapidity  that  has  never  before  been  equalled 
in  the  annals  of  time. 

The  mission^  then,  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  mission  of 
true  manhood — the  mission  of  Christianizing  and  civilizing 
the  world.  He  will  accomplish  this  not  by  a  resort  to  op- 
pression, but  upon  the  platform  of  genuine  sterling  man- 
hood. His  mission  is  one  of  justice,  not  of  the  cruel,  harsh, 
relentless,  unpardonable  justice  of  Rome,  but  a  justice 
beautifully  tempered  with  love  and  mercy.  His  mission  of 
war  is  not  that  of  greed,  or  self  aggrandizement,  but  one 
of  principles,  a  war  that  is  more  noble  and  sublime  because 
it  is  ever  subservient  to  Anglo-Saxon  manhood.  The  progress 
of  the  world  lies  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  will  vary  as  does  the  diffusion  of  his  idea  of  true  man- 
hood. 


S.    W.    T.   LANHAM.  55 

OUR  POLICY  TOWARD  PORTO  RICO, 


S,     W.     T.     LANHAM,     OP    TEXAS. 

(From    a    speech    delivered    in    the    House    of    Representatives, 
February    26,    1900.) 

The  time  has  come  when,  in  Porto  Rico  at  least,  it  would 
seem  that  in  some  degree  civil  government  is  to  be  sub- 
stituted for  military  rule.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that 
the  people  of  this  island  greeted  our  approach  and  welcomed 
American  sovereignty,  and  the  assurances  we  then  gave  them 
ought  to  be  constantly  kept  in  mind  and  faithfully  executed. 
They  have  not  engaged  in  any  insurrection  against  our 
authority  since  it  was  first  asserted.  No  insurgency  on  their 
part  has  menaced  our  peace,  nor  taken  the  lives  of  our 
soldiery.  Our  flag  has  floated  serenely  over  the  Porto 
Ricans.  That  they  will  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  any  just 
dominion  we  may  establish,  and  under  proper  treatment 
from  us  will  continue  to  rejoice  in  the  transfer  of  their 
allegiance  from  Spain  to  the  United  States  and  their  perma- 
nent connection  with  our  great  Union,  it  seems  reasonable 
to  assume.  How  shall  we  demean  ourselves  toward 
them,  and  what  shall  we  do  with  them?  It  is  re- 
corded that  when  Alexander  invaded  India  and  cap- 
tured Porus,  a  rich  and  powerful  king,  he  inquired  of  his 
captive  how  he  thought  he  ought  to  be  treated.  "Like  a 
king,"  was  the  proud  answer  made  to  the  conqueror's  ques- 
tion; and  it  is  said  that  Alexander  gave  him  back  his  king- 
dom, to  be  held,  however,  subject  to  the  Macedonian  crown. 
How  shall  we  treat  the  Porto  Ricans,  and  what  treatment 
have  they  the  right  to  expect  at  our  hands?  Are  they  less 
deserving  than  was  Porus,  the  Indian  king?  Are  we  less 
magnanimous  than  was  the  ancient  Grecian  warrior?  Is 
there  with  us  more  of  barbarism  and  less  of  human  tolera- 
tion in  the  closing  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  than  there 
was  with  the  heathen  iu  327  B.  C.?  Is  the  spirit  of  Amer- 
ican greed  stronger  than  was  the  rapacity  of  Grecian  con- 
quest? Is  Punic  faith  a  trait  of  American  character?  We 
must  either  treat  this  people  like  Americans,  or  as  an  alien 


56  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

race  unworthy  of  sharing  the  blessings  of  our  Government 
and  beyond  the  pale  of  our  Constitution. 

As  a  patriotic  American,  I  would  not  have  my  country 
shirk  any  proper  responsibility  or  evade  any  duty  it  owes 
to  itself  or  to  those  whom  the  fortunes  of  war  have  placed 
within  its  care  and  keeping  and  beneath  its  shield  and  pro- 
tection. I  earnestly  desire  that  it  should  suitably  discharge 
every  honorable  obligation  resting  upon  it  and  mete  out 
entire  justice,  both  to  its  perfect  and  inchoate  citizens.  It 
cannot  afford  to  do  wrong.  Its  conscience  must  be  preserved 
and  its  good  name  and  national  character  and  plighted  faith 
must  be  maintained.  I  earnestly  pray  that  it  may  be  equal 
to  every  present  and  future  emergency;  that  it  may  hold  fast 
to  the  faith  of  the  fathers,  and  that  every  "blessing  of  liberty" 
may  continue  to  abide  with  us  and  be  transmitted  unim- 
paired to  those  who  shall  come  after  us. 


LIBERTY  FOR  THE  FILIPINOS. 


WILLIAM  E.  MASON,  OF  ILLINOIS. 
(From   a   speech  in   the  United   States    Senate,   January   10,    1899.) 

When  Kossuth  wrote  the  declaration  of  Hungarian  inde- 
pendence he  had  in  mind  our  own  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. So  he  said  here  in  Washington.  For  over  one 
hundred  years  every  lover  of  liberty  has  pointed  to  this 
sentence  within  this  resolution:  "All  just  powers  of  govern- 
ment are  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  governed." 

This  sentence,  Mr.  President,  has  been  a  pillar  of  fire  by 
night  and  a  cloud  by  day  to  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed 
all  over  the  world.  In  the  light  of  this  sentence  crowns 
have  fallen  to  the  dust  and  men  have  stood  anew  in  their 
own  manhood.  In  the  light  of  this  sentence  Simon  Bolivar, 
the  liberator  of  South  America,  laid  in  blood  and  carnage 
the  foundation  stones  of  the  South  American  republics.  In 
the  light  of  this  sentence  Kosciusko  led  his  Spartan  band 
against  the  hosts  of  Russian  and  Austrian  oppressors  of  his 
native  Poland. 


WILLIAM   E.    MASON.  57 

This  burning  sentence  attracted  the  attention  of  Lafayette, 
across  the  water,  and  his  ships  set  sail  for  our  relief.  In 
the  light  of  this  sentence  Garibaldi  struck  down  Bourbon 
tyranny  and  carved  his  name  not  only  in  the  hearts  of  lovers 
of  liberty  in  Italy,  but  all  over  the  world.  No,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, we  will  not  amend  that  sentence  now.  We  will  not 
insert  the  word  "some"  just  yet.  It  has  passed  beyond  the 
power  of  this  country  to  amend  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  when  the  distinguished  Senator  from  Con- 
necticut and  I,  and  all  the  rest  of  us,  are  moldering  in  for- 
gotten dust,  that  sentence  will  continue  to  live  and  to  burn, 
a  menace  to  tyrants  and  a  beacon  light  to  the  downtrodden 
and  the  oppressed. 

I  am  for  the  independence  of  the  people  of  the  Philippine 
Islands,  as  I  am  for  independence  of  the  people  of  Cuba. 
I  am  bound  by  a  solemn  promise  made  in  this  chamber. 
Senators  may  haggle  and  say  it  is  not  nominated  in  the  bond; 
but  it  is  an  implied  promise,  more  sacred  to  an  honorable 
gentleman  Mian  though  it  were  written  in  blood.  ~ 

Mr.  President,  let  us  say  to  them,  as  we  have  said  to  Cuba, 
"Go  on  your  way;  learn  by  evolution" — for  that  is  the  only 
way.  "The  use  of  power  develops  power.  You  cannot  learn 
to  swim  outside  of  water.  You  may  take  lessons  in  swim- 
ming each  summer,  my  dear  Filipinos;  we  will  send  you 
4,000  teachers  of  swimming;  but  you  had  better  not  get  in 
out  of  your  depth  until  you  have  taken  a  trial  yourselves." 
Give  them  the  independence  they  plead  for,  and  we  shall 
have  kept  our  promise  with  the  people  of  the  world. 

Anything  else  will  be  the  breaking  of  a  national  promise 
and  a  personal  disgrace  to  70,000,000  people.  Then  we  can 
say  to  the  world,  "See,  there  is  Bedloe's  Island;  the  God- 
dess of  Liberty  has  not  changed  the  liberty  cap  for  a  crown; 
the  goddess  has  turned  on  her  pedestal  and  with  her  mighty 
searchlight  sweeps  the  continent  to  Cuba;  aye,  and  across  the 
water  10,000  miles  away  the  seed  sown  at  Concord  has  taken 
root;  there  is  a  new  flag  in  the  sky — not  the  flag  of  the  west- 
ern giant,  with  70,000,000  people  back  of  it,  seeking  to  extend 
territory  and  accomplish  sovereignty,  but  the  brave  little  re- 
publican flag  which  flaunts  its  saucy  colors  in  the  very  portals 
of  the  Orient 


58  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

I  had  hoped  for  some  power  of  language  that  the  old  mas- 
ters were  said  to  have  who  stood  within  this  forum  in  the 
past.  I  have  almost  prayed  for  some  magnetic  power  that  I 
could  turn  the  tide  for  the  liberty  of  those  people,  for  some 
magnetic  power  that  I  could  draw  you  so  close  that  I  could 
write  in  living  letters  upon  your  hearts  the  word  "Liberty." 
Not  liberty,  Mr.  President,  for  your  family  as  I  prescribe  it, 
not  liberty  for  me  or  my  children  by  your  dictation,  not 
Austrian  liberty  for  Hungary,  not  Spanish  liberty  for  Cuba, 
not  English  liberty  for  the  United  States,  and  not  American 
liberty  for  the  Philippines,  but  universal  liberty — universal 
liberty  for  which  our  fathers  died. 


OUR  DUTY  TO  THE  PHILIPINOS. 


THEODORE     ROOSEVELT. 

(From  a  speech  delivered  in  New  York  City,  February  13,  1899.) 
It  is,  I  am  sure,  the  desire  of  every  American  that  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Philippine  islands,  as  rapidly  as  they  show 
themselves  fit  for  self-government,  shall  be  endowed  with  a 
constantly  larger  measure  of  self-government.  But  it  would 
be  criminal  folly  to  sacrifice  the  real  warfare  of  the  islands, 
and  to  fail  to  do  our  own  manifest  duty,  under  the  plea  of  car- 
rying out  some  doctrinaire  idea  which,  if  it  had  been  lived 
up  to,  would  have  made  the  entire  North  American  con- 
tinent, as  now  found,  the  happy  hunting  ground  for  savages. 
It  is  the  idlest  of  chatter  to  speak  of  savages  as  being  fit 
for  self-government,  and  though  it  is  occasionally  heard  from 
excellent  and  well-meaning  people,  people  who  believe  what 
they  say,  it  usually  covers  another  motive  behind — it  means 
that  people  are  afraid  to  undertake  a  great  task,  and  cover  up 
their  fear  by  using  some  term  which  will  give  it  the  guise  of 
philanthropy.  If  we  refrain  from  doing  our  part  of  the 
world's  work,  it  will  not  alter  the  fact  that  that  work  has 
got  to  be  done,  only  it  will  have  to  be  done  by  some  stronger 
race,  because  we  will  have  shown  ourselves  weaklings.  I  do 
not  speak  merely  from  the  standpoint  of  American  interests, 
but  from  the  standpoint  of  civilization  and  humanity. 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT.  59 

It  is  infinitely  better  for  the  whole  world  that  Russia 
should  have  taken  Turkestan,  that  France  should  have  taken 
Algiers,  and  that  England  should  have  taken  India.  The  suc- 
cess of  an  Algerian  or  of  a  Sepoy  revolt  would  be  a  hideous 
calamity  to  all  mankind,  and  those  who  abetted  it,  directly 
or  indirectly,  would  be  traitors  to  civilization.  And  so  ex- 
actly the  same  reasoning  applies  to  our  own  dealings  with  the 
Philippines.  *  *  *  We  have  put  an  end  to  a  corrupt  me- 
dieval tyranny,  and  by  that  very  fact  we  have  bound  our- 
selves to  see  that  no  savage  anarchy  takes  its  place.  What 
the  Spaniard  has  been  taught  the  Malay  must  learn — that 
the  American  flag  is  to  float  unchallenged  where  it  floats  now. 
But,  remember  this,  that  when  this  is  accomplished  our  task 
has  only  just  begun.  Where  we  have  won  entrance  by  the 
prowess  of  our  soldiers  we  must  deserve  to  consinue  by  the 
righteousness,  the  wisdom  and  the  even-handed  justice  of  our 
rule.  The  American  administrators  in  the  Philippines  must 
be  men  chosen  for  signal  capacity  and  integrity;  men  who 
will  administer  the  provinces  on  behalf  of  the  entire  nation 
from  which  they  come,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  entire  people 
to  which  they  go.  We  are  bound  to  face  the  situations  that 
arise  with  courage,  and  we  are  no  less  bound  to  see  that  where 
the  sword  wins  the  land,  the  land  shall  be  kept  by  the  rule 
of  righteous  law.  We  have  taken  upon  ourselves,  as  in 
honor  bound,  a  great  task,  befitting  a  great  nation,  and  we 
have  a  right  to  ask  of  every  citizen,  of  every  true  American, 
that  he  shall  with  heart  and  hand  uphold  the  leaders  of  the 
nation  as  from  a  brief  and  glorious  war  they  strive  to  secure 
a  lasting  peace  that  shall  redound  not  only  to  the  interests 
of  the  conquered  people,  not  only  to  the  honor  of  the  Amer- 
ican public,  but  to  the  permanent  advancement  of  civilization 
and  of  all  mankind. 


60  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  PHILIPPINE  QUESTION. 


ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE,  OF  INDIANA. 

(From  a  speech  delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate,   February 

9,  1900.) 

Mr.  President,  the  times  call  for  candor.  The  Philippines 
are  ours  forever,  "territory  belonging  to  the  United  States/' 
as  the  Constitution  calls  them.  And  just  beyond  the  Philip- 
pines are  China's  illimitable  markets.  We  will  not  retreat 
from  either.  We  will  not  refuse  our  duty  in  the  Archipelago. 
We  will  not  abandon  our  opportunity  in  the  Orient.  We  will 
not  renounce  our  part  in  the  mission  of  our  race,  trustee,  un- 
der God,  of  the  civilization  of  the  world.  And  we  will  move 
forward  to  our  work,  not  howling  out  regrets  like  slaves 
whipped  to  their  burdens,  but  with  gratitude  for  a  task  wor- 
thy of  our  strength,  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  that 
He  has  marked  us  as  His  chosen  people,  henceforth  to  lead 
in  the  regeneration  of  the  world. 

This  island  empire  is  the  last  land  left  in  all  the  oceans.  If 
it  should  prove  a  mistake  to  abandon  it,  the  blunder  once 
made  would  be  irretrievable.  If  it  proves  a  mistake  to  hold 
it,  the  error  can  be  corrected  when  we  will;  every  other  pro- 
gressive nation  stands  ready  to  relieve  us. 

But  to  hold  it  will  be  no  mistake.  Our  largest  trade  hence- 
forth must  be  with  Asia.  The  Pacific  is  our  ocean.  More  and 
more  Europe  will  manufacture  all  it  needs — secure  from  its 
colonies  the  most  it  consumes.  Where  shall  we  turn  for  con- 
sumers of  our  surplus?  Geography  answers  the  question. 
China  is  our  natural  customer.  She  is  nearer  to  us  than  to 
England,  Germany  or  Russia,  the  commercial  powers  of  the 
present  and  the  future.  They  have  moved  nearer  to  China  by 
securing  permanent  bases  on  her  borders.  The  Philippines 
give  us  a  base  at  the  door  of  all  the  east.  Lines  of  naviga- 
tion from  our  ports  to  the  Orient  and  Australia;  from  the 
Isthmian  canal  to  Asia;  from  all  Oriental  ports  to  Australia, 
converge  at  and  separate  from  the  Philippines.  They  are  a 
self-supporting,  dividend-paying  fleet,  permanently  anchored 
at  a  spot  selected  by  the  strategy  of  Providence,  commanding 
the  Pacific.  And  the  Pacific  is  the  ocean  of  the  commerce  of 


ALBERT  J.    BEVERIDGE.  61 

the  future.  Most  future  wars  will  be  conflicts  for  commerce. 
The  power  that  rules  the  Pacific,  therefore,  is  the  power  that 
rules  the  world.  And,  with  the  Philippines,  that  power  is  and 
will  forever  be  the  American  Republic. 

China's  trade  is  the  mightiest  commercial  fact  of  our  future. 
Her  foreign  commerce  was  $285,738,300  in  1897,  of  which  we, 
her  neighbor,  had  less  than  15  per  cent.,  of  which  only  a  little 
more  than  half  was  merchandise  sold  to  China  by  us.  We 
ought  to  have  50  per  cent,  and  we  will.  And  China's  foreign 
commerce  is  only  beginning.  Her  resources;  her  possibilities, 
her  wants — all  are  undeveloped.  She  has  only  340  miles  of 
railway.  I  have  seen  trains  loaded  with  natives  and  all  the 
activities  of  modern  life  already  appearing  along  the  line. 
But  she  needs,  and  in  fifty  years  will  have,  20,000  miles  of  rail- 
way. Who  can  estimate  her  commerce  then?  That  states- 
man commits  a  crime  against  American  trade — against  the 
American  grower  of  cotton  and  wheat  and  tobacco,  the  Amer- 
ican manufacturer  of  machinery  and  clothing — who  fails  to 
put  America  where  she  may  command  that  trade.  The  Phil- 
ippines command  the  commercial  situation  of  the  entire  East. 
Can  America  best  trade  with  China  from  San  Francisco  or 
New  York?  From  San  Francisco,  of  course.  But  if  San 
Francisco  were  closer  to  China  than  New  York  is  to  Pittsburg, 
what  then?  And  Manila  is  nearer  Hongkong  than  Havana  is 
to  Washington.  And  yet  American  statesmen  plan  to  sur- 
render this  commercial  throne  of  the  Orient  where  Providence 
and  our  soldiers'  lives  have  placed  us.  When  history  comes 
to  write  the  story  of  that  suggested  treason  to  American 
supremacy,  and  therefore  to  the  spread  of  American  civiliza- 
tion, let  her  in  mercy  write  that  those  who  so  proposed  were 
merely  blind,  and  nothing  more. 


THE  PHILIPPINE  QUESTION. 


(Source:    Same   as   preceding.) 

Even  granting  that  the  Philippine  islands  did  not  command 
China,  India,  the  Orient,  the  whole  Pacific,  for  purposes  of 
offense,  defense  and  trade,  they  are  so  valuable  in  them- 


62  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

selves  that  we  should  hold  them.  I  have  cruised  more  than 
two  thousand  miles  through  the  archipelago,  every  moment 
a  surprise  at  its  loveliness  and  wealth.  I  have  ridden  hun- 
dreds of  miles  on  the  islands,  every  foot  of  the  way  a  rev- 
elation of  vegetable  and  mineral  riches.  No  land  in  America 
surpasses  in  fertility  the  plains  and  valleys  of  Luzon. 
Rice  and  coffee,  sugar  and  cocoanuts,  hemp  and  tobacco, 
and  many  products  of  the  temperate,  as  well  as  tropic  zone, 
grow  in  various  sections  of  the  archipelago.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  of  bushels  of  Indian  corn  lying  in  a  road  fringed 
with  banana  trees.  The  forests  of  Negros,  Mindanao, 
Mindora,  Paluan  and  parts  of  Luzon,  are  invaluable  and  intact. 
The  wood  of  the  Philippines  can  supply  the  furniture  of  the 
world  for  a  century  to  come.  The  mineral  wealth  of  this  em- 
pire of  the  ocean  will  one  day  surprise  the  world.  I  base 
this  statement  partly  on  personal  observation,  but  chiefly  on 
the  testimony  of  foreign  merchants  in  the  Philippines,  who 
have  practically  investigated  the  subject,  and  upon  theTTnani- 
mous  opinions  of  natives  and  priests.  And  the  mineral  wealth 
is  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  agricultural  wealth  of  these 
islands. 

This  question  is  deeper  than  any  question  of  party  politics; 
deeper  than  any  question  of  isolated  policy  of  our  country, 
even;  deeper  even  than  any  question  of  Constitutional  power. 
It  is  elemental.  It  is  racial.  God  has  not  been  preparing  the 
English-speaking  and  Teutonic  peoples  for  a  thousand  years 
for  nothing  but  vain  and  idle  self-contemplation  and  self- 
admiration.  No!  He  has  made  us  the  master  organizers  of 
the  world  to  establish  system  where  chaos  reigns.  He  has 
given  us  the  spirit  of  progress  to  overwhelm  the  forces  of  re- 
action throughout  the  earth.  He  has  made  us  adepts  in  gov- 
ernment among  savage  and  senile  peoples.  Were  it  not  for 
such  a  force  as  this  the  world  would  relapse  into  barbarism 
and  night.  And  of  all  our  race,  He  has  marked  the  Amer- 
ican people  as  His  chosen  nation  to  finally  lead  in  the  regen- 
eration of  the  world.  This  is  the  divine  mission  of  America, 
and  it  holds  for  us  all  the  profit,  all  the  glory,  all  the  happi- 
ness possible  to  man.  We  are  trustees  of  the  world's  prog- 
ress; guardians  of  its  righteous  peace.  The  judgment  of 


ALBERT   J     BEVERIDGE.  63 

the  Master  is  upon  us.     "Ye  have  been  faithful  over  a  few 
things.     I  will  make  Ye  ruler  over  many  things." 

What  shall  history  say  of  us?  Shall  it  say  that  we 
renounced  that  holy  trust,  left  the  savage  to  his  base  condi- 
tion, the  wilderness  to  the  reign  of  waste,  deserted  duty,  aban- 
"doned  glory,  forgot  our  sordid  profit  even,  because  we  feared 
our  strength  and  read  the  charter  of  our  powers  with  the 
doubter's  eye  and  the  qnibbler's  mind?  Shall  it  say  that, 
called  by  events  to  captain  and  command  the  proudest,  pur- 
est race  of  history  in  history's  noblest  work,  we  declined 
that  great  commission?  O'ur  fathers  would  not  have  had  it 
so.  No!  They  founded  no  paralytic  government,  incapable 
of  the  simplest  acts  of  administration.  They  planted  no  slug- 
gard people,  passive  while  the  world's  work  calls  them.  They 
established  no  reactionary  nation.  They  unfurled  no  retreat- 
ing flag." 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES. 


GEORGE   F.   HOAR,   OP  MASSACHUSETTS. 

(Extract   from   a   speech   delivered   in   the   United    States    Senate, 
April   12,    1900.) 

Mr.  President,  this  talk  that  the  American  flag  is  never  to 
be  removed  where  it  has  once  floated  is  the  silliest  and  wildest 
rhetorical  flourish  ever  uttered  in  the  ears  of  an  excited  popu- 
lace. 

Now,  what  are  the  facts  as  to  the  Philippine  islands  and  the 
American  flag?  We  had  occupied  a  single  city,  part  of  one  of 
four  hundred  islands,  and  with  a  population  of  120,000,  or 
thereabouts,  out  of  10,000,000.  The  Spanish  forces  were  in- 
vested and  hemmed  in  b/  the  people  of  those  islands,  who 
had  risen  to  assert  their  own  freedom,  when  we  got  there. 
Now,  what  kind  of  Americanism,  what  kind  of  patriotism, 
what  kind  of  love  of  liberty,  was  it  to  say  that  we  are  to 
turn  our  guns  on  that  patriot  people  and  wrest  from  them  the 
freedom  that  was  almost  within  their  grasp  and  hold  these 
islands  for  our  own  purposes  in  subjection  and  by  right  of 
conquest  because  the  American  flag  ought  not  to  be  hauled 
down  where  it  has  once  floated,  or  for  the  baser  and  viler 


64  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

motive  still,  that  we  can  make  a  few  dollars  a  year  out  of 
their  trade? 

Mr.  President,  this  is  the  doctrine  of  purest  ruffianism  and 
tyranny.  There  is  nothing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence in  it.  There  is  nothing  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  it.  There  is  nothing  of  the  fathers  in  it. 
There  is  nothing  of  George  Washington  in  it,  or  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  There  is  nothing  in  it  of  the  old  Virginia,  or  of 
the  old  South  Carolina,  or  of  the  old  Massachusetts.  If  every 
territory  over  which  the  flag  of  a  country  has  once  floated 
must  be  held  and  ne\er  shall  be  yielded  again  to  the  nation 
to  which  it  belonged,  every  war  between  great  and  power- 
ful nations  must  be  a  war  of  extermination  or  a  war  of 
dishonor  alike  to  the  victor  and  to  the  vanquished. 

We  expected,  did  we  not,  at  the  time  of  our  declaration  of 
war  that  we  would  not  wrest  Cuba  from  Spain  for  any  purpose 
of  our  own  aggrandizement,  but  only  that  there  might  be 
established  there  a  free  government  for  the  people  thereof, 
and  that  the  people  of  Cuba  were,  and  of  right  ought  to  be, 
a  free,  independent  state;  that  our  flag  would  float  in  Cuba 
while  the  operation  of  the  war  was  going  on  as  it  has  floated 
in  glory  and  in  honor.  Was  that  a  pledge  to  a  course  which 
should  dishonor  and  degrade  the  flag  of  our  country  in  the 
face  of  mankind?  Who  shall  haul  it  down  when  the  time 
comes?  The  man  who  signed  his  name  to  that  promise,  a 
man  with  whose  name  no  thought  of  dishonor  or  degrada- 
tion to  his  country's  flag  was  ever  associated,  will  keep  his 
own  honor  and  that  of  the  country  and  that  of  the  flag  un- 
stained by  hauling  it.  down  himself. 

Certainly  the  flag  should  never  be  lowered  from  any  moral 
field  over  which  it  has  once  waved.  To  follow  the  flag  is  to 
follow  the  principles  of  freedom  and  humanity  for  which  it 
stands.  To  claim  that  we  must  follow  it  when  it  stands  for 
injustice  or  oppression  is  like  claiming  that  we  must  take 
the  nostrums  of  the  quack  doctor  who  stamps  it  on  his  wares, 
or  follow  every  scheme  of  wickedness  or  fraud,  if  only  the 
flag  be  put  at  the  head  of  the  prospectus.  The  American  flag 
is  in  more  danger  from  the  imperialists  than  it  would  be 
if  the  whole  of  Christendom  were  to  combine  its  power 
against  it.  Foreign  violence  at  worst  could  only  rend  it. 
But  these  men  are  trying  to  stain  it. 


GEORGE   F.   HOAR.  65 

It  is  claimed— what  I  do  not  believe— that  these  appeals 
have  the  sympathy  of  the  American  people.  It  is  said  that 
the  statesman  who  will  lay  his  ear  to  the  ground  will  hear 
their  voice.  I  do  not  believe  it.  The  voice  of  the  American 
people  does  not  come  from  the  ground.  It  comes  from  the 
sky.  It  comes  from  the  free  air.  It  comes  from  the  moun- 
tains, where  liberty  dwells.  Let  the  statesman  who  is  fit  to 
deal  with  the  question  of  liberty  or  to  utter  the  voice  of  a  free 
people  lift  his  ear  to  the  sky — not  lay  it  to  the  ground. 

Mr.  President,  I  know  how  feeble  is  a  single  voice  amid 
this  din  and  tempest,  this  delirium  of  empire.  It  may  be 
that  the  battle  for  this  day  is  lost.  But  I  have  an  assured 
faith  in  the  future..  I  have  an  assured  faith  in  justice  and 
the  love  of  liberty  of  the  American  people.  The  stars  in  their 
courses  fight  for  freedom.  The  Ruler  of  the  heavens  is  on 
that  side.  If  the  battle  to-day  go  against  it,  I  appeal  to  an- 
other day,  not  distant  and  sure  to  come. 

I  appeal  from  the  clapping  of  hands  and  the  stamping  of 
feet  and  the  brawling  and  the  shouting  to  the  quiet  chamber 
where  the  fathers  gathered  in  Philadelphia.  I  appeal  from 
the  spirit  of  trade  to  the  spirit  of  liberty.  I  appeal  from  the 
empire  to  the  republic.  I  appeal  from  the  millionaire,  and 
the  boss,  and  the  wire-puller,  and  the  manager,  to  the  states- 
man of  the  elder  time,  in  whose  eyes  a  guinea  never  glistened 
who  lived  and  died  poor,  and  who  left  to  his  children  and 
to  his  countrymen  a  good  name,  far  better  than  riches.  I 
appeal  from  the  present,  bloated  with  material  prosperity, 
drunk  with  the  lust  of  empire,  to  another  and  a  better  age.  I 
appeal  from  the  Present  to  the  Future  and  to  the  Past. 


66  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER 

NOTIFICATION  SPEECH. 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE. 

(From  the  speech  at  Canton,   Ohio,   July  12,  1900,  notifying  Presi- 
dent McKinley  of  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency.) 

Without  faction,  without  dissent,  with  profound  satisfaction 
and  eager  enthusiasm,  you  were  nominated  for  the  presidency 
in  1896  by  the  united  voice  of  the  representatives  of  our 
great  party,  in  which  there  is  neither  sign  of  division  nor 
shadow  of  turning.  Such  unanimity,  always  remarkable,  is 
here  the  more  impressive  because  it  accompanies  a  second 
nomination  to  the  great  office  which  you  have  held  for  four 
years.  It  is  not  the  facile  triumph  of  hope  over  experience, 
but  the  sober  approval  of  conduct  and  character  tested  in 
many  trials  and  tried  by  heavy  and  extraordinary  responsi- 
bilities. 

True  to  the  declarations  which  were  made  at  St.  Louis  in 
1896,  you,  sir,  united  with  the  Republicans  in  Congress  in  the 
revision  of  the  tariff  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  pro- 
tective policy.  You  maintained  our  credit  and  upheld  the 
gold  standard,  leading  the  party  by  your  advice  to  the  passage 
of  the  great  measure  which  is  to-day  the  bulwark  of  both. 
You  led  again  in  the  policy  which  has  made  Hawaii  a  pos- 
session of  the  United  States.  On  all  these  questions  you  ful- 
filled the  hopes  and  justified  the  confidence  of  the  people,  who 
four  years  ago  put  trust  in  our  promises.  But  on  all  these 
questions  you  had  as  guides  not  only  your  own  principles,  the 
well-considered  results  of  years  of  training  and  reflection, 
but  also  the  plain  declarations  of  the  National  Convention 
which  nominated  you  in  1896.  Far  different  was  it  when  the 
Cuban  question,  which  we  had  also  promised  to  settle,  brought 
first  war,  then  peace,  with  Spain.  Congress  declared  war, 
but  you,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  had  to  carry  it  on.  You 
did  so,  and  history  records  unbroken  victory  from  the  first 
shot  of  the  Nashville  to  the  day  when  the  protocol  was  signed. 
The  peace  you  had  to  make  alone.  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Philippines;  you  had  to  assume  alone  the  responsibility  of 
taking  them  all  from  Spain.  Alone  and  weighted  with  the 
terrible  responsibility  of  the  unchecked  war  powers  of  the 


HENRY   CABOT   LODGE.  67 

Constitution,  you  were  obliged  to  govern  these  islands,  and  to 
repress  rebellion  and  disorder  in  the  Philippines.  No  party 
creed  defined  the  course  you  were  to  follow.  Courage,  fore- 
sight, comprehension  of  American  interests,  now  and  in  the 
uncharted  future,  faith  in  the  American  people  and  in  their 
fitness  for  great  tasks,  were  your  only  guides  and  counselors. 
Thus  you  framed  and  put  in  operation  this  great  new  policy 
which  has  made  us  at  once  masters  of  the  Antilles  and  a  great 
Eastern  power,  holding  firmly  our  possessions  on  both  sides 
of  the  Pacific. 

The  new  and  strange  ever  excite  fear,  and  the  courage  and 
prescience  which  accept  them  always  arouse  criticism  and 
attack.  Yet  a  great  departure  and  a  new  policy  were  never 
more  quickly  justified  than  these  undertaken  by  you.  On  th<? 
possession  of  the  Philippines  rests  the  admirable  diplomacy 
which  warned  all  nations  that  American  trade  was  not  to 
be  shut  out  of  China.  It  is  to  Manila  that  we  owe  the  ability 
to  send  troops  and  ships  to  the  defense  of  our  Ministers,  our 
missionaries,  our  Consuls  and  our  merchants  in  China,  instead 
of  being  compelled  to  leave  our  citizens  to  the  casual  protec- 
tion of  other  Powers,  as  would  have  been  unavoidable  had  we 
flung  the  Philippines  away.  Rest  assured,  sir,  that  the  vigor- 
ous measures  which  you  have  thus  been  enabled  to  take,  and 
all  further  measures  in  the  same  direction  which  you  may 
take,  for  the  protection  of  American  lives  and  property,  will 
receive  the  hearty  support  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
who  are  now,  as  always,  determined  that  the  American  citizen 
shall  be  protected  at  any  cost  in  all  his  rights  everywhere 
and  at  all  times.  It  is  to  Manila  again,  to  our  fleet  in  the  bay, 
and  our  army  on  the  land,  that  we  shall  owe  the  power  when 
these  scenes  of  blood  in  China  are  closed,  to  exact  reparation, 
to  enforce  stern  justice,  and  to  insist  in  the  final  settlement 
upon  an  open  door  to  all  that  vast  market  for  our  fast-grow- 
ing commerce.  Events,  moving  with  terrible  rapidity,  have 
been  swift  witnesses  to  the  wisdom  of  your  action  in  the 
East.  The  Philadelphia  convention  has  adopted  your  policy 
both  in  the  Antilles  and  in  the  Philippines  and  has  made  it 
that  of  the  Republican  party. 

Your  election,  sir,  next  November,  assures  to  us  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  policy  abroad  and  in  our  new  possessions. 


68  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

To  intrust  these  difficult  and  vital  questions  to  other  hands, 
at  once  incompetent  and  hostile,  would  be  a  disaster  to  us 
and  a  still  more  unrelieved  disaster  to  our  posterity.  Your 
election,  also,  means  not  only  protection  to  our  industries 
but  the  maintenance  of  a  sound  currency  and  of  the  gold 
standard,  the  very  corner  stones  of  our  economic  and  finan- 
cial welfare.  Should  they  be  shaken,  as  they  would  be 
by  the  success  of  our  opponents,  the  whole  fabric  of  our  busi- 
ness confidence  and  prosperity  would  fall  into  ruin.  Your 
defeat  would  be  the  signal  for  the  advance  of  free  trade,  for 
the  anarchy  of  a  debased  and  unstable  currency,  for  business 
panic,  depression  and  hard  times,  and  for  the  wreck  of  our 
foreign  policy.  Your  election  and  the  triumph  of  the  Repub- 
lican party — which  we  believe  to  be  as  sure  as  the  coming  of 
the  day — will  make  certain  the  steady  protection  of  our  in- 
dustries, sound  money,  and  a  vigorous  and  intelligent  foreign 
policy.  They  will  continue  those  conditions  of  good  govern- 
ment and  wise  legislation  so  essential  to  the  prosperity  and 
well  being  which  have  blessed  our  country  so  abundantly 
during  the  past  four  years. 


ACCEPTANCE  SPEECH. 

WILLIAM  McKINLEY. 

(From  his  reply  to  Senator  Lodge,  at  Canton,  Ohio,  July  12,  1900.) 
Have  those  to  whom  was  confided  the  direction  of  the  Gov- 
ernment four  years  ago  kept  their  pledges?  The  record  is 
made  up.  The  people  are  not  unfamiliar  with  what  has  been 
accomplished.  The  gold  standard  has  been  reaffirmed  and 
strengthened.  The  endless  chain  has  been  broken  and  the 
drain  upon  our  gold  reserve  no  longer  frets  us.  The  credit  of 
the  country  has  been  advanced  to  the  highest  place  among 
all  nations.  We  are  refunding  our  bonded  debt  bearing  three 
and  four  and  five  per  cent,  interest  at  two  per  cent.,  a  lower 
rate  than  that  of  any  other  country,  and  already  more  than 
three  hundred  millions  have  been  so  funded,  with  a  gain  to 
the  Government  of  many  millions  of  dollars.  Instead  of  free 


WILLIAM  MCKINLEY.  69 

silver  at  16  to  1,  for  which  our  opponents  contended  four 
years  ago,  legislation  has  been  enacted  which,  while  utilizing 
all  forms  of  our  money,  secures  one  fixed  value  for  every 
dollar,  and  that  the  best  known  to  the  civilized  world. 

A  tariff  which  protects  American  labor  and  industry  and 
provides  ample  revenue  has  been  written  in  public  law.  We 
have  lower  interest  and  higher  wages;  more  money  and  fewer 
mortgages.  The  world's  markets  have  been  opened  to  Ameri- 
can products,  which  go  now  where  they  have  never  gone  be- 
fore. We  have  passed  from  a  bond  issuing  to  a  bond  paying 
nation,  from  a  nation  of  borrowers  to  a  nation  of  lenders, 
from  a  deficiency  in  revenue  to  a  surplus;  from  fear  to  con- 
fidence; from  enforced  idleness  to  profitable  employment. 
The  public  faith  has  been  upheld;  public  order  has  been 
maintained.  We  have  prosperity  at  home  and  prestige  abroad. 

Some  things  have  happened  which  were  not  promised,  nor 
even  foreseen,  and  our  purposes  in  relation  to  them  must  not 
be  left  in  doubt.  A  just  war  has  been  waged  for  humanity, 
and  with  it  have  come  new  problems  and  responsibilities. 
Spain  has  been  ejected  from  the  Western  Hemisphere,  and  our 
flag  floats  over  her  former  territory.  Cuba  has  been  liberated, 
and  our  guarantees  to  her  people  will  be  sacredly  executed.  A 
beneficent  government  has  been  provided  for  Porto  Rico.  The 
Philippines  are  ours  and  American  authority  must  be  supreme 
throughout  the  archipelago.  There  will  be  amnesty  broad  and 
liberal,  but  no  abatement  of  our  rights,  no  abandonment  of 
our  duty.  There  must  be  no  scuttle  policy.  We  will  fulfill 
in  the  Philippines  the  obligations  imposed  by  the  triumph  of 
our  arms  and  by  the  treaty  of  peace,  by  international  law,  by 
the  nation's  sense  of  honor,  and  more  than  all  by  the  rights, 
interests  and  conditions  of  the  Philippine  peoples  themselves. 
No  outside  interference  blocks  the  way  to  peace  and  a  stable 
government.  The  obstructionists  are  here,  not  elsewhere. 
They  may  postpone  but  they  cannot  defeat  the  realization  of 
the  high  purpose  of  this  nation  to  restore  order  in  the  islands 
and  establish  a  just  and  generous  government,  in  which  the 
inhabitants  shall  have  the  largest  participation  for  which  they 
are  capable.  The  organized  forces  which  have  been  misled 
into  rebellion  have  been  dispersed  by  our  faithful  soldiers 
and  sailors,  and  the  people  of  the  islands,  delivered  from 


70  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

anarchy,  pillage  and  oppression,  recognize  American  sover- 
eignty as  the  symbol  and  pledge  of  peace,  justice,  law,  reli- 
gious freedom,  education,  the  security  of  life  and  property, 
and  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  their  several  communities. 

We  reassert  the  early  principle  of  the  Republican  party, 
sustained  by  unbroken  judicial  precedents,  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  in  Congress  assembled,  have  full  leg- 
islative power  over  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States, 
subject  to  the  fundamental  safeguards  of  liberty,  justice  and 
personal  rights,  and  are  vested  with  ample  authority  to  act 
"for  the  highest  interests  of  our  nation  and  the  people  in- 
trusted to  its  care."  This  doctrine,  first  proclaimed  in  the 
cause  of  freedom,  will  never  be  used  as  a  weapon  for  oppres- 
sion. 

We  have  been  moving  in  untried  paths,  but  our  steps  have 
been  guided  by  honor  and  duty.  There  will  be  no  turning 
aside,  no  wavering,  no  retreat.  No  blow  has  been  struck  ex- 
cept for  liberty  and  humanity,  and  none  will  be.  We  will  per- 
form without  fear  every  national  and  international  obligation. 
The  Republican  party  was  dedicated  to  freedom  forty-four 
years  ago.  It  has  been  the  party  of  liberty  and  emancipation 
from  that  hour;  not  of  profession,  but  of  performance.  It 
broke  the  shackles  of  4,000,000  slaves  and  made  them  free, 
and  to  the  party  of  Lincoln  has  come  another  supreme  oppor- 
tunity which  it  has  bravely  met  in  the  liberation  of  10,000,000 
of  the  human  family  from  the  yoke  of  imperialism.  In  its 
solution  of  great  problems,  in  its  performance  of  high  duties, 
it  has  had  the  support  of  members  of  all  parties  in  the  past, 
and  confidently  invokes  their  co-operation  in  the  future. 


JAMES   D.    RICHARDSON.  71 


(Extract  from  the  speech  of  CONGRESSMAN  JAMES  D.   RICH- 
ARDSON,   of  Tennessee,    notifying  Mr.    Bryan   of  his   nomina- 
•  tion  for  the  Presidency,   at  Indianapolis,   Ind.,  August  8,   1900.) 

Sir — On  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-fourth  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  this  republic  there  assembled  in  Kansas  City  the 
most  intensely  American  convention  that  ever  came  together 
in  its  history.  This  great  body  was  made  up  of  men  from 
every  State  and  Territory  in  the  Union.  They  came  from  their 
respective  districts  filled  with  unfeigned  enthusiasm  for  the 
inspiring  cause  which  brought  them  together.  Their  seven 
millions  of  constituents  had  empowered  them  to  frame  a  plat- 
form of  principles  and  select  a  candidate  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States  in  what  they  conceived 
to  be  the  supremest  political  crisis  that  ever  came  to  our 
country.  These  delegates  all  realized  that  the  Republic  is  in 
peril.  They  felt  that  the  duty  was  theirs  to  take  such  action 
as  would  rescue  the  State  from  the  gulf  of  imperialism  in 
which  it  had  been  plunged,  and  thus  preserve  for  themselves 
and  posterity  unimpaired  the  priceless  blessings  of  free  gov- 
ernment and  civil  liberty. 

The  delegates  assembled  at  Kansas  City  did  not  take  hasty 
action.  Their  conduct  was  characterized  by  the  greatest 
firmness  and  determination.  In  the  alarming  condition  in 
which  the  country  has  been  placed  by  the  present  weak  and 
vacillating  and  un-American  Administration  at  Washington, 
they  realized,  as  do  our  fellow-citizens  generally,  that  a 
change  of  men  and  policies  is  imperiously  demanded.  They 
proceeded  deliberately,  and  chose  you  to  lead  in  the  battle 
for  the  restoration  of  the  true  political  faith. 

Four  years  ago  you  led  the  party  in  the  most  brilliant  con- 
test it  has  ever  experienced.  You  then  failed  to  win  the  goal, 
the  Presidency,  but  you  did  more;  you  won  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  your  political  foes,  and  the  ardent  love  and 
devotion  of  your  followers.  That  contest  was  made  by  you 
against  stupendous  odds,  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  press,  and 
with  unhappy  division  in  your  ranks.  I  congratulate  you, 
and  the  country,  that  all  these  unfortuitous  conditions  do 
confront  you  to-day.  It  is  true  you  were  then  bitterly,  some- 
times wantonly,  assailed,  and  when  partisan  rancor  ran  high. 


72      ,  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Occasionally  coarse  things  were  said  of  you,  and  your  party. 
But  you  and  they  survived  them  all,  and  were,  perhaps, 
stronger  for  them.  We  trust  this  campaign  will  be  pitched 
on  a  higher  plane,  and  that  it  will  be  conducted  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  the  great  dignity  which  attaches  to  the  two  most 
exalted  offices  at  stake. 

It  is  true  that  you  and  your  party  friends  have  already 
been  characterized  as  dishonest  and  lawless  at  home,  and  as 
cowards  abroad.  I  feel  sure,  however,  it  will  stop  at  this,  or, 
at  least,  if  such  hyperbolic  flowers  of  speech  are  used  at  all, 
it  will  be  in  rare  instances,  and  only  then  by  some  one  whose 
coarse  manners  before  the  public  are  equalled  only  by  the 
roughness  of  his  riding  habit. 

During  the  eventful  and  exciting  campaign  of  1896  you 
were  constantly  before  the  public.  The  eyes  of  the  nation 
were  fixed  upon  you  and  your  utterances,  as  they  were  never 
before  upon  a  public  man.  Then,  and  at  all  times  since,  you 
have  been  under  a  light  as  glaring  as  the  sun  at  high  noon, 
yet  no  flaw  of  dishonor  or  cowardice  is  pointed  out  in  your 
record  by  any  foe.  Review  and  criticism  have  wholly  failed 
to  injure  or  weaken  you  in  public  esteem.  And  now  you  are, 
with  absolute  unanimity,  by  every  State,  territory  and  dis- 
trict in  the  Union,  made  the  candidate  of  a  reunited  and  har- 
monious party.  You  are  by  all  real  Americans  regarded  as 
the  best  exponent  of  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  which  was  arti- 
cled in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  sealed  by  the 
blood  of  patriots.  We  deny  that  that  Declaration  is  a  back 
number.  We  solemnly  affirm  that,  by  the  faithful,  it  is  yet 
venerated  as  the  grandest  charter  of  human  rights  and  human 
liberty  ever  devised  by  man.  The  lust  of  greed  and  power 
preaches  contempt  for  its  superb  doctrine,  but  we  hold  it  is 
the  only  guiding  star  by  which  our  ship  of  State  can  be  safely 
sailed.  We  know  that  it  has  served  our  purpose  well  and 
gloriously  until  of  late,  when  another  star,  the  star  of  im- 
perialism, has  been  selected  as  the  guide  for  our  course. 

We  know  that  we  can,  with  entire  confidence,  make  appeal 
to  the  people  for  our  country's  rescue  in  this  hour  of  her 
peril.  We  appeal  to  all  who  loathe  imperialism  and  venerate 
our  Constitution.  We  appeal  to  all  who  despise  militarism 
and  love  liberty.  We  appeal  to  all  who  oppose  high  war 


JAMES   D.    RICHARDSON.  73 

taxes  in  time  of  peace  and  other  increase  of  taxes,  and  who 
favor  a  just  system  of  revenue  collection,  and  all  who  in 
every  way  oppose  unequal  taxation.  We  appeal  to  all  who 
favor  our  hitherto  free  institutions  and  equal  opportunity  for 
all  under  the  law.  We  appeal  to  all  who  are  willing  to  resist 
the  ever-increasing  oppression  and  robbery  of  the  trusts  and 
monopolies.  We  appeal  to  all  who  are  opposed  to  the  criminal 
aggression  of  forcible  annexation*  and  who  do  not  favor  hav- 
ing our  flag  float  with  its  protecting  aegis  over  Sulu  slaves 
and  Oriental  harems.  We  appeal,  in  short,  to  all  patriots  and 
lovers  of  liberty,  regardless  of  past  party  affiliations,  to  en- 
list in  our  cause  and  help  triumphantly  to  bear  our  banner. 

In  this  unparalleled  contest  we  pledge  you  the  earnest, 
zealous,  unbought,  unfaltering,  enthusiastic  support  of  7,000,- 
000  voters  of  the  Republic  as  you  go  forth  to  battle,  and  as 
the  Constitution  of  our  beloved  land  should  follow  its  flag,  so 
this  undismayed  and  unconquerable  band  of  patriots  will  fol- 
low you  as  you  bear  their  flag  to  victory  in  November. 


IMPERIALISM. 

WM.    J.    BRYAN. 
(From  his  reply  to  the  Notification  Committee,  August  8,  1900.) 

When  I  say  that  the  contest  of  1900  is  a  contest  between 
Democracy  on  the  one  hand  and  plutocracy  on  the  other,  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  our  opponents  have  deliberately 
chosen  to  give  to  organized  wealth  a  predominating  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Government,  but  I  do  assert  that  on  the 
important  issues  of  the  day  the  Republican  party  is  dominated 
by  those  influences  which  constantly  tend  to  elevate  pecuni- 
ary considerations  and  ignore  human  rights. 

In  1859  Lincoln  said  that  the  Republican  party  believed  in 
the  man  and  the  dollar,  but  that  in  case  of  conflict  it  believed 
in  the  man  before  the  dollar.  This  is  the  proper  relation 
which  should  exist  between  the  two.  Man,  the  handiwork 
of  God,  comes  first;  money,  the  handiwork  of  man,  is  of  in- 
ferior importance.  Man  is  the  master,  money  the  servant, 


74  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

but  upon  all  important  questions  to-day  Republican  legisla- 
tion tends  to  make  money  the  master  and  man  the  servant. 

The  maxim  of  Jefferson,  "equal  rights  to  all  and  special 
privileges  to  none,"  and  the  doctrine  of  Lincoln  that  this 
should  be  a  government  "of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people,"  are  being  disregarded  and  the  instrumentalities 
of  government  are  being  used  to  advance  the  interests  of 
those  who  are  in  a  position  to  secure  favors  from  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  Democratic  party  is  not  making  war  upon  tne  honest 
acquisition  of  wealth;  it  has  no  desire  to  discourage  industry, 
economy  and  thrift.  On  the  contrary,  it  gives  to  every  citizen 
the  greatest  possible  stimulus  to  honest  toil  when  it  promises 
him  protection  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labor. 
Property  rights  are  most  secure  when  human  rights  are  most 
respected.  Democracy  strives  for  a  civilization  in  which 
every  member  of  society  will  share  according  to  his  merits. 

The  principal  arguments  advanced  by  'those  who  enter 
upon  a  defense  of  imperialism,  are: 

First — That  we  must  improve  the  present  opportunity  to 
become  a  world  power  and  enter  into  international  politics. 

Second — That  our  commercial  interests  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  and  in  the  Orient  make  it  necessary  for  us  to  hold 
the  islands  permanently. 

Third — That  the  spread  of  the  Christian  religion  will  be 
facilitated  by  a  colonial  policy. 

Fourth — That  there  is  no  honorable  retreat  from  the  posi- 
tion which  the  nation  has  taken. 

The  first  argument  is  addressed  to  the  nation's  pride,  and 
the  second  to  the  nation's  pocketbook.  The  third  is  intended 
for  the  church  member  and  the  fourth  for  the  partisan. 

It  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  first  argument  to  say  that  for 
more  than  a  century  this  nation  has  been  a  world  power.  For 
ten  decades  it  has  been  the  most  potent  influence  in  the 
world.  Not  only  has  it  been  a  world  power  but  it  has  done 
more  to  affect  the  politics  of  the  human  race  than  all  the 
other  nations  of  the  world  combined.  Because  our  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  promulgated,  others  have  been 
promulgated.  Because  the  patriots  of  1776  fought  for 
liberty,  others  have  fought  for  it;  because  our  Constitution 


WM.   J.   BRYAN.  75 

was  adopted,  other  constitutions  have  been  adopted.  The 
growth  of  the  principle  of  self-government,  planted  on 
American  soil,  has  been  the  overshadowing  political  fact  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  It  has  made  this  nation  conspicuous 
among  the  nations  and  given  it  a  place  in  history  such  as  no 
other  nation  has  ever  enjoyed.  Nothing  has  been  able  to 
check  the  onward  march  of  this  idea.  I  am  not  willing  that 
this  nation  shall  cast  aside  the  omnipotent  weapon  of  truth 
to  seize  again  the  weapon  of  physical  warfare.  I  would  not 
exchange  the  glory  of  this  Republic  for  the  glory  of  all  the 
empires  that  have  risen  and  fallen  since  time  began. 

I  can  conceive  of  a  national  destiny  surpassing  the  glories 
of  the  present  and  the  past — a  destiny  which  meets  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  to-day  and  measures  up  to  the  possibilities 
of  the  future.  Behold  a  Republic  resting  securely  upon  the 
foundation  stones  quarried  by  revolutionary  patriots  from 
the  mountain  of  eternal  truth,  a  Republic  applying  in  prac- 
tice and  proclaiming  to  the  world  the  self-evident  proposi- 
tion that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed 
with  inalienable  rights;  that  governments  are  instituted 
among  men  to  secure  these  rights,  and  that  governments  de- 
rive their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  Be- 
hold a  Republic  in  which  civil  and  religious  liberty  stimu- 
lates all  to  earnest  endeavors  and  in  which  the  law  restrains 
every  hand  uplifted  for  a  neighbor's  injury — a  Republic  in 
which  every  citizen  is  a  sovereign,  but  in  which  no  one  cares 
to  wear  a  crown.  Behold  a  Republic  standing  erect  while 
empires  all  around  are  bowed  beneath  the  weight  of  their 
own  armaments — a  Republic  whose  flag  is  loved  while  other 
flags  are  only  feared.  Behold  a  Republic  increasing  in  pop- 
ulation, in  wealth,  in  strength  and  in  influence,  solving  the 
problems  of  civilization  and  hastening  the  coming  of  an 
universal  brotherhood — a  Republic  which  shakes  thrones  and 
dissolves  aristocracies  by  its  silent  example  and  gives  light 
and  inspiration  to  those  who  sit  in  darkness.  Behold  a  Re- 
public gradually,  but  surely,  becoming  the  supreme  moral 
factor  in  the  world's  progress  and  the  accepted  arbiter  of 
the  world's  disputes— a  Republic  whose  history,  like  the  path 
of  the  just,  "is  as  the  shining  light  that  shineth  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day." 


76  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  INDEPENDENT  VOTER. 


LEO   N.    L.EVI,   ESQ. 
(Extract  from  a  speech  delivered  at  Cuero,   Texas,   July  4,  1884.) 

In  every  government  parties  are  inevitable,  if  not  neces- 
sary. In  our  government  they  are  necessary  to  the  per- 
petuity of  the  government  itself.  Our  constitution  was  a 
compromise;  the  machinery  of  our  government  was  adopted 
in  accordance  with  that  compromise.  The  great  struggle  be- 
tween the  federalists  and  republicans  was  relegated  to  pos- 
terity, and  the  contest  still  continues  and  will  continue  until 
the  end. 

The  logical  issue  of  a  strong  and  centralized  government 
is  illustrated  in  the  despotism  of  Bismarck  and  the  czar.  The 
logical  issue  of  pure  democracy  was  reached  in  the  French 
revolution  and  the  commune.  In  England  and  the  United 
States  the  advocates  of  either  principles  are  nearly  evenly 
matched  and  the  conservatism  resulting  gives  us  the  two  best 
governments  of  modern  times.  Nothing  in  our  present  con- 
dition should  excite  our  exultation  so  much  as  the  fact  that 
the  two  great  American  parties  are  of  almost  equal  number, 
ability  and  power.  It  insures  conservatism  and  honesty  in 
public  affairs  and  leaves  the  balance  of  power  where  it  should 
be  lodged — with  the  independent  voter.  The  independent 
voter  is  the  safety  valve  of  the  republic.  He  is  the  most  re- 
sponsible, most  intelligent,  the  bravest  of  our  citizens.  He  is 
above  all  others  the  patriot  whose  patriotism  is  neither  an 
incident  to  nor  a  means  of  self-preservation. 

"It  is  base  abandonment  of  reason  to  resign  the  right  of 
thought."  Such  disaffection  purifies  and  strengthens  a  party. 
It  deposes  inefficient  and  corrupted  leaders.  It  is  the  sword 
of  Damocles  that  is  constantly  suspended  over  the  head  of 
the  demagogue.  Were  there  no  such  independence,  party 
leaders  would  become  tyrants  and  the  government  would  be 
at  the  mercy  of  the  man  who  best  succeeded  in  whipping  or 
bribing  votes  to  the  polls.  Our  government  was  born  of  the 
individuality  and  independence  of  the  colonists.  They  re- 
mained loyal  to  the  mother  country  until  repeated  and  long 
continued  abuses  made  loyalty  synonymous  with  the  surren- 


LEO.    N.    LEVI.  77 

der  of  manhood.  Then  leaped  into  the  full  vigor  of  revolu- 
tion the  courageous  spirit  of  liberty  and  independence.  Dur- 
ing eight  years  of  privation  and  danger  that  are  but  half  told 
when  the  power  of  the  historian  is  exhausted,  they  struggled 
with  unabated  courage.  The  God  of  justice  was  with  them 
and  lo!  an  infant  nation  sprung  into  life,  faint,  impoverished 
and  weak,  but  rich  in  the  heritage  of  freedom,  bequeathed  by 
the  countless  martyrs  of  the  past. 

The  independence  of  the  Americans  was  the  progenitor  and 
birthright  of  the  nation.  Believe  me,  my  friends,  we  cannot 
surrender  the  basis  of  our  greatness  without  destroying  the 
magnificent  superstructure.  From  independence  we  were  born, 
by  it  we  have  grown  great,  through  it  and  only  through  inde- 
pendence can  we  endure.  I  recognize  in  our  country  the  frui- 
tion of  all  the  hopes  and  prayers  that  have  mingled  with 
the  martyrs'  tears  since  the  morning  of  time.  The  seed  of 
freedom  that  could  not  germinate  in  the  eastern  hemisphere, 
in  the  virgin  soil  of  a  new  continent  sprung  into  a  magnifi- 
cent tree  that  was  rooted  on  Independence  day  and  destined, 
let  us  trust,  to  flourish  for  all  time.  It  is  because  of  the 
blessings  our  country  is  able  to  afford  that  I  would  name  and 
guard  against  the  dangers  that  threaten  her  purity,  power 
and  stability.  The  parasite  is  not  less  dangerous  because  we 
refuse  to  recognize  its  existence. 

The  very  genius  of  this  occasion  is  loyalty  to  our  country's 
flag,  which  we  thus  annually  renew  with  freshened  enthusi- 
asm. It  is  well  that  the  heart  should  be  stirred  by  national 
anthems  and  plaudits  for  the  national  banner,  but  more  en- 
during in  substance  and  value  than  anthems  and  hosannas, 
is  that  patriotism  that  perennially  burns  and  that  should  on 
such  occasions  burst  into  a  flame  of  resolve  to  perpetuate 
and  practice  the  revolutionary  slogan,  "Independence  now 
and  forever." 


78  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  INDEPENDENT  IN  POLITICS. 


JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 
(Extract   from   an   address   delivered   before   the  Reform   Club   of 

New  York,  April  13,  1888.) 

(By  permission  of  Houghton,   Mifflin  &  Co.,  authorized  publishers 
of  Lowell's  Works.) 

Under  every  form  of  representative  government,  parties  be- 
come necessary  for  the  marshalling  and  expression  of  opinion, 
and,  where  parties  are  once  formed,  those  questions  the  dis- 
cussion of  which  would  discipline  and  fortify  men's  minds 
tend  more  and  more  to  pass  out  of  sight,  and  the  topics  that 
interest  their  prejudices  and  passions  to  become  more  absorb- 
ing. What  will  be  of  immediate  advantage  to  the  party  is 
the  first  thing  considered,  what  of  permanent  advantage  to 
their  country  the  last.  Both  of  the  leading  parties  have  been 
equally  guilty,  both  have  evaded,  as  successfully  as  they 
could,  the  living  questions  of  the  day.  As  the  parties  have 
become  more  evenly  balanced,  the  difficulty  of  arriving  at 
their  opinions  have  been  greater  in  proportion  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  devising  any  profession  of  faith  meaningless  enough 
not  to  alarm,  if  it  could  not  be  so  interpreted  as  to  conciliate, 
the  varied  and  sometimes  conflicting  interests  of  the  different 
sections  of  the  country. 

Such  being  the  dangers  and  temptations  of  parties,  it  is  for 
the  interest  of  the  best  men  in  both  parties  that  there  should 
be  a  neutral  body,  not  large  enough  to  form  a  party  by  itself, 
nay,  which  would  lose  its  power  for  good  if  it  attempted  to 
form  such  a  party,  and  yet  large  enough  to  moderate  between 
both,  and  to  make  both  more  cautious  in  their  choice  of  can- 
didates and  in  their  connivance  with  evil  practices.  If  the 
politicians  must  look  after  the  parties,  there  should  be  some- 
body to  look  after  the  politicians,  somebody  to  ask  disagree- 
able questions  and  to  utter  uncomfortable  truths;  somebody 
to  make  sure,  if  possible,  before  election,  not  only  what,  but 
whom  the  candidate,  if  elected,  is  going  to  represent.  What 
to  me  is  the  saddest  feature  of  our  present  methods  is  the 
pitfalls  which  they  dig  in  the  path  of  ambitious  and  able  men 
who  feel  that  they  are  fitted  for  a  political  career,  that  by 


JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL.  79 

character  and  training  they  could  be  of  service  to  their  coun- 
try, yet  who  find  every  avenue  closed  to  them  unless  at  the 
sacrifice  of  the  very  independence  which  gives  them  a  claim 
to  what  they  seek.  As  in  semi-barbarous  times  the  sincerity 
of  a  converted  Jew  was  tested  by  forcing  him  to  swallow  pork, 
so  these  are  required  to  gulp  with  a  wry  face  what  is  as 
nauseous  to  them.  I  would  do  all  in  my  power  to  render  such 
loathsome  compliances  unnecessary.  The  pity  of  it  is  that 
with  our  political  methods  the  hand  is  of  necessity  subdued 
to  what  it  works  in.  It  has  been  proved,  I  think,  that  the 
old  parties  are  not  to  be  reformed  from  within.  It  is  from 
without  that  the  attempt  must  be  made,  and  it  is  the  Inde- 
pendents who  must  make  it.  Our  politicians  are  so  busy 
studying  the  local  eddies  of  prejudice  or  interest  that  they 
allow  the  main  channel  of  our  national  energies  to  be  ob- 
structed by  dams  for  the  grinding  of  private  grist.  Our 
leaders  no  longer  lead,  but  are  as  skillful  as  Indians  in  fol- 
lowing the  slightest  trail  of  public  opinion. 

To  create  a  healthful  public  opinion,  we  want  an  active,  in- 
dependent class  who  will  insist  in  season  and  out  of  season 
that  we  shall  have  a  country  whose  greatness  is  measured, 
not  only  by  its  square  miles,  its  number  of  yards  woven,  of 
hogs  packed,  of  bushels  of  wheat  raised,  not  only  by  its  skill 
to  feed  and  clothe  the  body,  but  also  by  its  power  to  feed 
and  clothe  the  soul;  a  country  which  shall  be  as  great  morally 
as  it  is  materially;  a  country  whose  very  name  shall  not  only, 
as  now  it  does,  stir  us  as  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  but 
shall  call  out  all  that  is  best  within  us  by  offering  us  the  ra- 
diant image  of  something  better  and  nobler  and  more  endur- 
ing than  we,  of  something  that  shall  fulfill  our  own  thwarted 
aspiration,  when  we  are  but  a  handful  of  forgotten  dust  in 
the  soil  trodden  by  a  race  whom  we  shall  have  helped  to 
make  more  worthy  of  their  inheritance  than  we  ourselves  had 
the  power  to  be. 


80  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  STATESMANSHIP  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 


WENDELL.     PHILLIPS. 

When  Napoleon's  soldiers  bore  the  negro  chief  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture  into  exile,  he  said,  pointing  back  to  San  Do- 
mingo, ''You  think  you  have  rooted  up  the  tree  of  liberty; 
but  I  am  only  a  branch.  I  have  planted  the  tree  itself  so  deep 
that  ages  will  never  root  it  up."  And  whatever  may  be  said 
of  the  social  or  industrial  condition  of  Hayti  during  the  last 
ninety  years,  its  nationality  has  never  been'  successfully  as- 
sailed. 

Daniel  O'Connell  is  the  only  Irishman  who  can  say  as  much 
of  Ireland.  From  the  peace  of  Utrecht  till  the  fall  of  Napo- 
leon, Great  Britain  was  the  leading  State  in  Europe;  while 
Ireland,  a  comparatively  insignificant  island,  lay  at  its  feet. 
She  weighed  next  to  nothing  in  the  scale  of  British  politics. 
The  Continent  pitied,  and  England  despised  her.  O'Connell 
found  her  a  mass  of  quarrelling  races  and  sects,  divided, 
dispirited,  broken-hearted,  and  servile.  He  made  her  a  na- 
tion, whose  first  word  broke  in  pieces  the  iron  obstinacy  of 
Wellington,  tossed  Peel  from  the  Cabinet,  and  gave  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  Whigs;  whose  colossal  figure,  like  the  helmet 
in  Walpole's  romance,  has  filled  the  political  sky  ever  since. 

It  was  a  community  impoverished  by  five  centuries  of  op- 
pression;— four  millions  of  Catholics  robbed  of  every  acre  of 
their  native  land;  it  was  an  island  torn  by  race-hatred  and 
religious  bigotry;  her  priests  indifferent,  and  her  nobles 
hopeless  or  traitors.  Ireland  lay  bound  in  the  iron  links  of 
a  code,  which  Montesquieu  said  could  have  been  "made  only 
by  devils,  and  should  be  registered  only  in  hell"!  Her  mil- 
lions were  beyond  the  reach  of  the  great  reform  engine  of 
modern  times,  since  they  could  neither  read  nor  write. 

In  this  mass  of  ignorance,  weakness,  and  quarrel,  one  keen 
eye  saw  hidden  the  elements  of  union  and  strength.  With, 
rarest  skill  he  called  them  forth  and  marshalled  them  into 
rank.  Then  this  one  man,  without  birth,  wealth,  or  office,  in 
a  land  ruled  by  birth,  wealth,  and  office,  moulded  from  those 
unsuspected  elements  a  power,  which,  overawing  king,  senate, 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  81 

and  people,  wrote  his  single  will  on  the  statute-book  of  the 
most  obstinate  nation  in  Europe. 

Safely  to  emancipate  the  Irish  Catholics,  and,  in  spite  of 
Saxon,  Protestant  hate,  to  lift  all  Ireland  to  the  level  of 
British  citizenship, — this  was  the  problem  which  statesman- 
ship and  patriotism  had  been  seeking  for  two  centuries  to 
solve.  For  this  blood  had  been  poured  out  like  water;  on  this 
the  genius  of  Swift,  the  learning  of  Molyneux,  and  the  elo- 
quence of  Bushe,  Grattan,  and  Burke,  had  been  wasted.  Eng- 
lish leaders,  ever  since  Fox,  had  studied  this  problem  anx- 
iously. They  saw  that  the  safety  of  the  empire  was  com- 
promised. At  one  or  two  critical  moments  in  the  reign  of 
George  III.,  one  signal  from  an  Irish  leader  would  have 
snapped  the  chain  that  bound  Ireland  to  his  throne.  His 
ministers  recognized  it;  and  they  tried  every  expedient,  ex- 
hausted every  device,  dared  every  peril,  kept  oaths  or  broke 
them,  in  order  to  succeed.  They  failed;  and  not  only  failed, 
but  acknowledged  that  they  could  see  no  way  in  which  suc- 
cess could  ever  be  achieved. 

O'Connell  achieved  it.  Out  of  this  darkness  he  called  forth 
light;  out  of  this  most  abject,  weak,  and  pitiable  of  kingdoms 
he  made  a  power;  and,  dying,  he  left  in  Parliament  a  spectre, 
which,  unless  appeased,  pushes  Whig  and  Tory  ministers 
alike  from  their  thrones. 


REVOLUTIONS. 

WENDELL     PHILLIPS. 

Wherever  you  meet  a  dozen  earnest  men  pledged  to  a  new 
idea  you  meet  the  beginning  of  a  new  revolution.  Revolu- 
tions are  not  made,  they  come.  A  revolution  is  as  natural  a 
growth  as  an  oak.  It  comes  out  of  the  past;  its  foundations 
are  laid  far  back.  The  child  feels;  he  grows  into  a  man  and 
thinks;  another,  perhaps,  speaks;  and  the  world  acts  out  the 
thought.  And  this  is  the  history  of  modern  society.  Men 
undervalue  the  anti-slavery  movement  because  they  imagine 


82  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

you  can  always  put  your  finger  on  some  illustrious  moment 
in  history  and  say:  "Here!  commenced  the  great  change 
which  has  come  over  the  nation." 

Not  so.  The  beginning  of  the  great  changes  is  like  the  rise 
of  the  Mississippi.  You  must  stoop  and  gather  away  the  peb- 
bles to  find  it.  But  soon  it  swells  broader  and  broader;  bears 
on  its  bosom  the  navies  of  a  mighty  republic;  forms  the  gulf; 
and  divides  a  continent. 

There  is  a  story  of  Napoleon  which  illustrates  my  meaning. 
We  are  apt  to  trace  the  control  of  France  to  some  noted  vic- 
tory, to  the  time  when  he  encamped  in  the  Tuilleries; 
or  when  he  dissolved  the  assembly  by  the  stamp  of  his 
foot.  He  reigned  in  fact  when  his  hand  first  felt  the  helm  of 
the  vessel  of  state,  and  that  was  far  back  of  the  time  when 
he  had  conquered  Italy,  or  his  name  had  been  echoed  over 
two  continents.  It  was  on  the  day  500  irresolute  men  were 
met  in  the  assembly  which  called  itself,  and  pretended  to  be, 
the  government  of  France,  They  heard  that  the  mob  of  Paris 
were  coming  next  morning,  30,000  strong,  to  turn  them,  as 
was  usual  in  those  days,  out  of  doors.  And  where  did  this 
seemingly  great  power  go  for  its  support  and  refuge?  They 
sent  Tallien  to  seek  out  a  boy  lieutenant — the  shadow  of  an 
officer — so  thin  and  pallid  that  when  he  was  placed  on  the 
stand  before  them,  the  President  of  the  Assembly,  fearful,  if 
the  fate  of  France  rested  on  the  shrunken  form,  the  ashen 
cheek,  before  him,  that  all  hope  was  gone,  asked:  "Young 
man,  can  you  protect  the  assembly?"  The  stern  lip  of  the 
Corsican  boy  parted  only  to  say,  "I  always  do  what  I  under- 
take." 

Then  and  there  Napoleon  ascended  his  throne;  and  the 
next  day  from  the  steps  of  St.  Roche  thundered  forth  the  can- 
non which  taught  the  mob  of  Paris,  for  the  first  time,  that 
it  had  a  master.  That  was  the  commencement  of  the  empire. 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  83 

THE  SCHOLAR  IN  A  REPUBLIC. 


WENDELL,     PHILLIPS. 

Gibbon  says  we  have  two  educations,  one  from  teachers, 
and  the  other  we  give  ourselves.  This  last  is  the  real  and 
only  education  of  the  masses — one  gotten  from  life,  from 
affairs,  from  earning  one's  bread;  necessity,  the  mother  of 
invention;  responsibility,  that  teaches  prudence,  and  inspires 
respect  for  right. 

Anacharsis  went  into  the  Archon's  court  at  Athens,  heard 
a  case  argued  by  the  great  men  of  that  city,  and  saw  the  vote 
by  five  hundred  men.  Walking  in  the  streets,  some  one  asked 
him,  "What  do  you  think  of  Athenian  liberty?"  "I  think," 
said  he,  "wise  men  argue  cases,  and  fools  decide  them."  Just 
what  that  timid  scholar,  two  thousand  years  ago,  said  in  the 
streets  of  Athens,  that  which  calls  itself  scholarship  here 
says  to-day  of  popular  agitation — that  it  lets  wise  men  argue 
questions  and  fools  decide  them.  But  that  Athens  where 
fools  decided  the  gravest  questions  of  policy  and  of  right 
and  wrong,  where  property  you  had  .gathered  wearily  to-day 
might  be  wrung  from  you  by  the  caprice  of  the  mob  to- 
morrow— that  very  Athens  probably  secured,  for  its  era,  the 
greatest  amount  of  human  happiness  and  nobleness;  invented 
art,  and  sounded  for  us  the  depths  of  philosophy.  God  lent 
to  it  the  largest  intellects,  and  it  flashes  to-day  the  torch  that 
gilds  yet  the  mountain  peaks  of  the  Old  World;  while  Egypt, 
the  hunker  conservative  of  antiquity,  where  nobody  dared  to 
differ  from  the  priest  or  to  be  wiser  than  his  grandfather; 
where  men  pretended  to  be  alive,  though  swaddled  in  the 
graveclothes  of  creed  and  custom  as  close  as  their  mummies 
were  in  linen— that  Egypt  is  hid  in  the  tomb  it  inhabited,  and 
the  intellect  Athens  has  trained  for  us  digs  to-day  those  ashes 
to  find  out  how  buried  and  forgotten  hunkerism  lived  and 
acted. 

I  urge  on  college-bred  men  that,  as  a  class,  they  fail  in 
republican  duty  when  they  allow  others  to  lead  in  the  agita- 
tion of  the  great  social  questions  which  stir  and  educate  the 
age.  Agitation  is  an  old  word  with  a  new  meaning.  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  the  first  English  leader  who  felt  himself  its  tool, 


84  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

defined  it  to  be  "marshalling  the  conscience  of  a  nation  to 
mould  its  laws."  Its  means  are  reason  and  argument — no 
appeal  to  arms.  Wait  patiently  for  the  growth  of  public 
opinion.  That  secured,  then  every  step  taken  is  taken  for- 
ever. An  abuse  once  removed  never  reappears  in  history. 
The  freer  a  nation  becomes,  the  more  utterly  democratic  in  its 
form,  the  more  need  of  this  outside  agitation.  Parties  and 
sects,  laden  with  the  burden  of  securing  their  own  success, 
cannot  afford  to  risk  new  ideas.  "Predominant  opinions," 
said  Disraeli,  "are  the  opinions  of  a  class  that  is  vanishing." 
The  agitator  must  stand  outside  of  organizations,  with  no 
bread  to  earn,  no  candidate  to  elect,  no  party  to  save,  no  ob- 
ject but  truth, — ever  ready  to  tear  a  question  open  and  riddle 
it  with  light. 

To  be  as  good  as  our  fathers  we  must  be  better.  They  si- 
lenced their  fears  and  subdued  their  prejudices,  inaugurating 
free  speech  and  equality  with  no  precedent  on  the  file.  Eu- 
rope shouted  "Madmen!"  and  gave  us  forty  years  for  the 
shipwreck.  With  serene  faith  they  persevered.  Let  us  rise 
to  their  level. 

Sit  not,  like  the  figure  on  our  silver  coin,  looking  ever 
backward. 

"New  occasions  teach  new  duties; 
Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
They  must  upward  still,  and  onward, 
Who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth. 
Lo!    before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires! 
We  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly 
Through  the  desperate  winter  sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal 
With  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key." 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  85 

CHARACTER  ESSENTIAL  FOR  A  GREAT  LAWYER. 


WENDELL,     PHILLIPS. 
(Selected  from  his  lecture  on  "  Idols.") 

It  is  a  grave  thing  when  a  State  puts  a  man  among  her 
jewels,  the  glitter  of  whose  fame  makes  doubtful  acts  look 
heroic.  The  honors  we  grant  mark  how  high  we  stand,  and 
they  educate  the  future.  The  men  we  honor  and  the  maxims 
we 'lay  down  in  measuring  our  favorites,  show  the  level  and 
morals  of  the  time.  A  name  has  been  in  every  one's  mouth 
of  late,  and  men  have  exhausted  language  in  trying  to  ex- 
press their  admiration  and  their  respect.  The  courts  have 
covered  the  grave  of  Mr.  Choate  with  eulogy.  Let  us  see 
what  is  their  idea  of  a  great  lawyer.  We  are  told  that  "he 
worked  hard,"  "he  never  neglected  his  client,"  "he  flung  over 
the  discussions  of  the  forum  the  grace  of  a  rare  scholarship," 
"No  pressure  or  emergency  ever  stirred  him  to  an  unkind 
word."  A  ripe  scholar,  a  profound  lawyer,  a  faithful  servant 
of  his  client,  a  gentleman.  This  is  a  good  record  surely.  May 
he  sleep  in  peace.  What  he  earned,  God  grant  he  may  have. 
But  the  bar  that  seeks  to  claim  for  such  'a  one  a  place  among 
great  jurists  must  itself  be  weak  indeed.  Not  one  high  moral 
trait  specified;  not  one  patriotic  act  mentioned;  not  one 
patriotic  service  even  claimed.  Look  at  Mr.  Webster's  idea 
of  what  a  lawyer  should  be  in  order  to  be  called  great,  in  the 
sketch  he  drew  of  Jeremiah  Mason,  and  notice  what  stress  he 
lays  upon  the  religious  and  moral  elevation,  and  the  glorious 
and  high  purposes  which  crown  his  life.  Nothing  of  this 
now;  nothing  but  incessant  eulogy.  But  not  a  word  of  one 
effort  to  lift  the  yoke  of  cruel  or  unequal  legislation  from  the 
neck  of  its  victim;  not  one  attempt  to  make  the  code  of  his 
country  wiser,  purer,  better;  not  one  effort  to  bless  his  times 
or  breathe  a  higher  moral  purpose  into  the  community.  Not 
one  blow  struck  for  right  or  for  liberty,  while  the  battle  of  the 
giants  was  going  on  about  him;  not  one  patriotic  act  to  stir 
the  hearts  of  his  idolaters;  not  one  public  act  of  any  kind 
whatever  about  whose  merit  friend  or  foe  could  even  quarrel, 
unless  when  he  scouted  our  great  charter  as  a  glittering  gen- 
erality, or  jeered  at  the  philanthropy  which  tried  to  practice 
the  sermon  on  the  mount. 


86  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

When  Cordus,  the  Roman  senator  whom  Tiberius  murdered, 
was  addressing  his  fellows,  he  began:  "Fathers,  they  accuse 
me  of  illegal  words;  plain  proof  that  there  are  no  illegal 
deeds  with  which  to  charge  me."  So  with  these  eulogies. 
Words,  nothing  but  words;  plain  proof  that  there  were  no 
deeds  to  praise.  Yet  this  is  the  model  which  Massachusetts 
offers  to  the  Pantheon  of  the  great  jurists  of  the  world! 

Suppose  we  stood  in  that  lofty  temple  of  jurisprudence — 
on  either  side  of  us  the  statues  of  the  great  lawyers  of  every 
age  and  clime, — and  let  us  see  what  part  New  England — Purl- 
tan,  educated,  free  New  England — would  bear  in  the  pageant. 

Rome  points  to  a  colossal  figure  and  says,  "That  is  Papi- 
nian,  who,  when  the  Emperor  Caracella  murdered  his  own 
brother,  and  ordered  the  lawyer  to  defend  the  deed,  went 
cheerfully  to  death,  rather  than  sully  his  lips  with  the  atro- 
cious plea;  and  that  is  Ulpian,  who,  aiding  his  prince  to  put 
the  army  below  the  law,  was  massacred  at  the  foot  of  a  weak 
but  virtuous  throne." 

And  France  stretches  forth  her  grateful  hands,  crying 
"That  is  D'Aguesseau,  worthy,  when  he  went  to  face  an  en- 
raged king,  of  the  farewell  his  wife  addressed  him:  'Go,  for- 
get that  you  have  a  wife  and  children  to  ruin,  and  remember 
only  that  you  have  France  to  save.'  " 

England  says,  "That  is  Coke,  who  flung  the  laurels  of  eighty 
years  in  the  face  of  the  first  Stuart,  in  defense  of  the  people. 
This  is  Selden,  on  every  book  of  whose  library  you  saw  writ- 
ten the  motto  of  which  he  lived  worthy,  'Before  everything 
Liberty!'  That  is  Mansfield,  silver-tongued,  who  proclaimed, 
'Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England;  if  their  lungs  receive  our 
air,  that  moment  they  are  free.'  " 

Then  New  England  shouts,  "This  is  Choate,  who  made  it 
safe  to  murder,  and  of  whose  health  thieves  asked  before 
they  began  to  steal!" 


HENRY   W.    GRADY.  87 

THE  NEWnSOUTH. 


HENRY    W.    GRADY. 

(From    the    speech    that   first   brought   him    national   fame   as    an 

orator.     Delivered   at  a  dinner  of   the  New   England 

Society,  New  York  City,  December  21,  1886.) 

The  picture  of  your  returning  armies  of  the  North  has  been 
drawn  for  you  by  a  master  hand.  You  have  been  told  how, 
in  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war  they  came  back  to  you, 
marching  with  proud  and  victorious  tread,  reading  their  glory 
in  a  nation's  eyes.  Will  you  bear  with  me  while  I  tell  you 
of  another  army  that  sought  its  home  at  the  close  of  the  late 
war — an  army  that  marched  home  in  defeat  and  not  in  vic- 
tory, in  pathos  and  not  in  splendor,  but  in  glory  that  equalled 
yours,  and  to  hearts  as  loving  as  ever  welcomed  heroes  home? 

Let  me  picture  to  you  the  footsore  Confederate  soldier  as, 
buttoning  up  in  his  faded  gray  jacket  the  parole  which  was 
to  bear  testimony  to  his  children  of  his  fidelity  and  his  faith, 
he  turned  his  face  southward  from  Appomattox  in  April, 
1865.  Think  of  him  as  ragged,  half  starved,  heavy  hearted, 
enfeebled  by  want  and  wounds,  having  fought  to  exhaustion, 
he  surrenders  his  gun,  wrings  the  hand  of  his  comrades  in 
silence,  and  lifting  his  tear-stained  and  pallid  face  for  the 
last  time  to  the  graves  that  dot  old  Virginia's  hills,  pulls  his 
gray  cap  over  his  brow,  and  begins  his  slow  and  painful 
journey. 

What  does  he  find — let  me  ask  you — what  does  he  find 
when,  having  followed  the  battle  stained  cross  against  over- 
whelming odds,  dreading  death  not  half  so  much  as  surren- 
der, he  reaches  the  home  he  left  so  prosperous  and  beautiful? 
He  finds  his  house  in  ruins,  his  farm  devastated,  nis  slaves 
free,  his  stock  killed,  his  barns  empty,  his  trade  destroyed, 
his  money  worthless,  his  social  system,  feudal  in  its  magnifi- 
cence, swept  away,  his  people  without  law  or  legal  status,  his 
comrades  slain,  and  the  burdens  of  others  heavy  on  his  shoul- 
ders. Crushed  by  defeat,  his  very  traditions  are  gone.  With- 
out money,  credit,  employment,  material  or  training;  and  be- 
sides all  this,  confronted  with  the  gravest  problem  that  ever 
met  human  intelligence — the  establishment  of  a  status  for  the 
vast  body  of  his  liberated  slaves. 


88  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER* 

What  does  lie  do,  this  hero  in  gray  with  a  heart  of  gold? 
Does  he  sit  down  in  sullenness  and  despair?  Not  for  a  day. 
Surely  God,  who  had  stripped  him  of  his  prosperity,  inspired 
him  in  his  adversity.  As  ruin  was  never  before  so  over- 
Whelming,  never  was  restoration  swifter.  The  soldiers 
stepped  from  the  trenches  into  the  furrow;  horses  that  had 
charged  Federal  guns  marched  before  the  plow,  and  fields 
that  ran  red  with  human  blood  in  April  were  green  with  the 
harvest  in  June. 

But  what  is  the  sum  of  our  work?  We  have  found  out  that 
the  free  negro  counts  more  than  he  did  as  a  slave.  We  have 
planted  the  school  house  on  the  hill-top,  and  made  it  free  to 
white  and  black.  We  have  sowed  towns  and  cities  in  the 
place  of  theories,  and  put  business  above  politics. 

The  new  South  is  enamored  of  her  new  work.  Her  soul  is 
stirred  with  the  breath  of  a  new  life.  The  light  of  a  grander 
day  is  falling  fair  on  her  face.  She  is  thrilling  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  growing  power  and  prosperity.  As  she  stands 
upright,  full  statured  and  equal,  among  the  peoples  of  the 
earth,  breathing  the  keen  air  and  looking  out  upon  the  ex- 
panding horizon,  she  understands  that  her  emancipation 
came  because,  through  the  inscrutable  wisdom  of  God,  her 
honest  purpose  was  crossed  and  her  brave  armies  were 
beaten. 

Now  what  answer  has  New  England  to  this  message?  Will 
she  withhold,  save  in  strained  courtesy,  the  hand  which 
straight  from  his  soldier's  heart,  Grant  offered  to  Lee  at 
Appomattox?  If  she  does,  the  South,  never  abject  in  asking 
for  comradeship,  must  accept  with  dignity  its  refusal;  but 
if  she  does  not  refuse  to  accept  in  frankness  and  sincerity 
this  message  of  good  will  and  friendship,  then  will  the 
prophecy  of  Webster,  delivered  in  this  very  society  forty 
years  ago,  be  verified  in  its  fullest  extent  when  he  said: 
"Standing  hand  to  hand  and  clasping  hands,  we  should  re- 
main united  as  we  have  been  for  sixty  years,  citizens  of  the 
same  country,  members  of  the  same  government,  united,  all 
united  now,  and  united  forever." 


HENRY  W.   GRADY,  89 


THE  TYPICAL  AMERICAN. 


HENRY    W.    GRADY. 

(Source:    Same  as   preceding.) 

We  hear  a  great  deal  said,  particularly  each  year  when  the 
New  England  societies  meet,  about  the  virtues  of  the 
Puritans;  but  we  should  not  forget  the  fact  that  the  Cavalier 
as  well  as  the  Puritan  was  on  the  continent  in  its  early  days, 
and  that  he  was  "up  and  able  to  be  about." 

Let  me  remind  you  that  the  Virginia  Cavalier  first  challenged 
France  on  dthis  Continent;  that  Cavalier  John  Smith  gave 
New  England  its  very  name,  and  was  so  pleased  with  the  job 
that  he  has  been  handing  his  own  name  around  ever  since; 
and  that  while  Miles  Standish  was  cutting  off  men's  ears  for 
courting  a  girl  without  her  parent's  consent,  and  forbade 
men  to  kiss  their  wives  on  Sunday,  the  Cavalier  was  courting 
everything  in  sight. 

But  having  said  this  much  for  the  Cavalier,  we  let  him 
work  out  his  own  salvation,  as  he  has  always  done  with  en- 
gaging gallantry,  and  we  hold  no  controversy  as  to  his 
merits.  Why  should  we?  Neither  Puritan  or  Cavalier  long 
survived  as  such.  The  virtues  and  traditions  of  both  happily 
still  live  for  the  inspiration  of  their  sons  and  the  saving  of 
the  old  fashion.  But  both  Puritan  and  Cavalier  were  lost  in 
the  storm  of  the  first  Revolution;  and  the  American  citizen, 
supplanting  both  and  stronger  than  either,  took  possession 
of  the  Republic,  bought  by  their  common  blood  and  fashioned 
to  wisdom,  and  charged  himself  with  teaching  men  govern- 
ment and  establishing  the  voice  of  the  people  as  the  voice  of 
God. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  typical  American  has  yet  to  come. 
Let  me  tell  you  that  he  has  already  come.  Great  types, 
like  valuable  plants,  are  slow  to  flower  and  fruit.  But 
from  the  union  of  these  colonists,  Puritans  and  Cavaliers, 
from  the  straightening  of  their  purposes  and  the  crossing  of 
their  blood,  slow  perfecting  through  a  century,  came  he  who 
stands  as  the  first  typical  American,  the  first  who  compre- 


90  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

bended  within  himself  all  the  strength  and  gentleness,  all 
the  majesty  and  grandeur  of  this  republic — Abraham  Lincoln. 
He  was  the  sum  of  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  for  in  his  ardent 
nature  were  fused  the  virtues  of  both,  and  in  the  depth  of 
his  great  soul  the  faults  of  both  were  lost.  He  was  greater 
than  Puritan,  greater  than  Cavalier,  in  that  he  was  American; 
and  that  in  his  homely  form  were  first  gathered  the  vast  and 
thrilling  forces  of  his  ideal  government;  charging  it  with 
such  tremendous  meaning  and  so  elevating  it  above  human 
sufferings,  that  martyrdom  though  infamously  aimed,  came 
as  a  fitting  crown  to  a  life  consecrated  from  the  cradle  to 
human  liberty. 

Let  us,  each  cherishing  the  traditions  and  honoring  his 
fathers,  build  with  reverent  hands  to  the  type  of  this  simple 
but  sublime  life  in  which  all  types  are  honored;  and  in  our 
common  glory  as  Americans  there  will  be  plenty  and  to  spare 
for  Puritan  and  Cavalier. 


THE  OLD  SOUTH  AND  THE  NEW. 


HENRY    W.    GRADY. 

(From    a    speech    delivered    at    the    Augusta,     Ga.,     Exposition, 
November,  1887.) 

It  was  Ben  Hill,  the  music  of  whose  voice  is  now  attuned 
to  the  symphonies  of  the  skies,  who  said,  "There  was  a  South 
of  secession  and  slavery;  that  South  is  dead;  there  is  a  South 
of  union  and  freedom;  that  South,  thank  God,  is  living,  grow- 
ing every  hour. 

In  answering  the  toast  to  the  New  South  to-night,  I  accept 
that  name  in  no  disparagement  to  the  Old  South.  Dear  to 
me,  sir,  is  the  home  of  my  childhood  and  the  traditions  of  my 
people,  and  not  for  the  glories  of  New  England's  history, 
from  Plymouth  Rock,  all  the  way,  would  I  surrender  the  least 
of  these.  Never  shall  I  do,  or  say,  aught  to  dim  the  lustre 
of  the  glory  of  my  ancestors,  won  in  peace  and  in  war.  Where 
is  the  young  man  in  the  South  who  has  spoken  one  word  in 
disparagement  of  our  past,  or  has  worn  lightly  the  sacred 


HENRY    W.    GRADY.  91 

traditions  of  his  fathers?  The  world  has  not  equalled  the 
unquestioning  reverence  and  the  undying  loyalty  of  the 
young  men  of  the  South,  to  the  memory  of  our  fathers.  I 
have  stood  with  them  shoulder  to  shoulder,  as  they  met  new 
conditions  without  surrendering  old  faiths,  and  I  have  been 
content  to  feel  the  grasp  of  their  hands  and  the  throb  of  their 
hearts,  as  they  marched  unfearing,  into  new  and  untried 
ways. 

If  I  should  attempt  to  prostitute  the  generous  enthusiasm 
of  these,  my  comrades,  to  my  own  ambition,  I  should  be  un- 
worthy. If  any  man,  enwrapping  himself  in  the  sacred  mem- 
ories of  the  Old  South,  should  prostitute  them  to  the  hiding 
of  his  weakness  or  the  strengthening  of  his  failing  fortunes, 
that  man  would  be  unworthy.  If  any  man,  for  his  own  ad- 
vantage, should  seek  to  divide  the  Old  South  from  the  new, 
or  the  new  from  the  old — to  separate  these  that  in  love  have 
been  joined  together — to  estrange  the  son  from  his  father's 
grave  and  turn  our  children  from  the  memories  of  our  dead 
—to  embitter  the  closing  days  of  our  veterans  with  the  suspi- 
cion of  the  sons  that  shall  follow  them;  that  man's  words 
are  unworthy  and  spoken  to  the  injury  of  his  people. 

Some  one  has  said,  in  derision,  that  the  old  men  of  the 
South,  sitting  down  amid  their  ruins,  reminded  him  of  "the 
Spanish  hidalgoes  sitting  in  the  porches  of  the  Alhambra  and 
looking  out  to  sea  for  the  return  of  the  lost  Armada."  There 
is  pathos  but  no  derision  in  this  picture  to  me.  These  men 
were  our  fathers.  Their  lives  were  stainless.  Their  hands 
were  daintily  cast,  and  the  civilization  they  builded  in  ten- 
der and  engaging  grace,  hath  not  been  equalled.  The  scenes 
amid  which  they  moved,  as  princes  among  men,  have  van- 
ished forever.  A  grosser  and  more  material  day  has  come, 
in  which  their  gentle  hands  can  garner  but  scantily,  and  their 
guileless  hearts  fend  but  feebly.  Let  me  sit,  therefore,  in  the 
dismantled  porches  of  their  homes,  into  which  dishonor 
hath  never  entered — to  which  discourtesy  is  a  stranger,  and 
gaze  out  to  sea,  beyond  the  horizon  of  which  their  Armada 
has  drifted  forever.  And  though  the  sea  shall  not  render 
back  for  them  the  Argosies  which  went  down  in  their  ships, 
let  us  build  for  them,  in  the  land  they  love  so  well,  a  stately 
and  enduring  temple,  its  pillars  founded  in  justice,  its  arches 


92  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

springing  to  the^  skies,  its  treasuries  filled  with  substance, 
liberty  walking  in  its  corridors  and  religion  filling  its  aisles 
with  incense;  and  here  let  them  rest  in  honorable  peace  and 
tranquility  until  God  shall  call  them  hence,  to  "a  house  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens." 


THE  UNIVERSITY  THE  TRAINING  CAMP  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


HENRY  W.  GRADY. 

(From  an  address  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  June  25,  1889.) 

We  are  standing  in  the  daybreak  of  a  new  century  of  this 
Republic.  The  fixed  stars  are  fading  from  the  sky;  and  we 
grope  in  uncertain  light.  The  unrest  of  dawn  impels  us  to 
and  fro,  but  doubt  stalks  amid  the  confusion,  and  even  on  the 
beaten  paths  the  shifting  crowds  are  halted,  and  from  the 
shadows  the  sentry  cries:  "Who  comes  there?" 

Who  shall  be  the  heralds  of  this  coming  day?  Who  shall 
thread  the  way  of  honor  and  safety  through  these  besetting 
problems?  You,  my  countrymen,  you!  The  university  is 
the  training  camp  of  the  future.  The  scholar,  the  champion 
of  the  coming  years.  Learning  is  supreme  and  you 
are  its  prophets.  Napoleon  overran  Europe  with  drum 
tap  and  bivouac;  the  next  Napoleon  shall  form  his  battalion 
at  the  tap  of  the  school  house  bell,  and  his  captains  shall 
come  with  cap  and  gown.  Waterloo  was  won  at  Oxford; 
Sedan  at  Berlin.  So  Germany  plants  her  colleges  in  the 
shadow  of  the  French  forts,  and  the  professor  smiles  amid  his 
students  as  he  notes  the  sentinel  stalking  against  the  sky. 
The  farmer  has  learned  that  brains  mix  better  with  his  soil 
than  the  waste  of  sea  birds.  A  button  is  pressed  by  a  child's 
finger  and  the  work  of  a  million  men  is  done.  The  hand  is 
nothing;  the  brain  everything.. 

Physical  prowess  has  had  its  day,  and  the  age  of  reason  has 
come.  Here  are  the  Olympic  games  of  the  Republic — and  you 
are  its  chosen  athletes.  It  is  yours,  then,  to  grapple  with  these 
problems,  to  confront  and  master  these  dangers.  Yours  to 


HENRY   W.   GRADY.  93 

decide  whether  the  tremendous  forces  of  this  Republic  shall 
be  kept  in  balance,  or  whether,  unbalanced,  they  shall  bring 
chaos;  whether  sixty  million  men  are  capable  of  self-govern- 
ment, or  whether  liberty  shall  be  lost  to v  them  who  would 
give  their  lives  to  maintain  it.  •  Your  responsibility  is  appal- 
ing.  You  stand  in  the  pass  behind  which  the  world's  liberties 
are  guarded. 

This  government  carries  the  hopes  of  the  human  race.  Blot 
out  the  beacon  that  lights  the  portal  of  this  Republic,  and  the 
world  is  adrift  again.  But  save  the  Republic,  establish  the 
light  of  its  beacon  over  the  troubled  waters,  and  one  by  one 
the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  drop  anchor  and  be  at  rest  in 
the'  harbor  of  universal  liberty. 


CENTRALIZATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


HENRY  W.  GRADY. 

(From  an  address  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  June  25,  1889.) 

The  unmistakable  danger  that  threatens  free  government 
in  America  is  the  increasing  tendency  to  concentrate  in  the 
federal  government  powers  and  privileges  that  should  be  left 
to  the  states,  and  to  create  powers  that  neither  the  state  nor 
federal  government  should  have. 

Concurrent  with  this  political  grip  is  another  movement, 
less  formal,  perhaps,  but  not  less  dangerous,  the  consolidation 
of  capital.  The  world  has  not  seen  nor  has  the  mind  of  man 
conceived  of  such  miraculous  wealth-gathering  as  are  every 
day  tales  to  us.  Aladdin's  lamp  is  dimmed,  and  Monte 
Cristo  becomes  commonplace,  when  compared  to  our  magi- 
cians of  finance  and  trade. 

I  do  not  denounce  the  newly  rich.  Our  great  wealth  has 
brought  us  profit  and  splendor.  But  the  status  itself  is  a  men- 
ace. A  home  that  costs  three  million  dollars  and  a  breakfast 
that  costs  five  thousand  dollars,  are  disquieting  facts  to  the 
millions  who  live  in  a  hut  and  dine  on  a  crust.  The  fact  that 
a  man  ten  years  from  poverty  has  an  income  of  twenty  mil- 


94  MODERN    AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

lion  dollars,  falls  strangely  on  the  ears  of  those  who  hear  it, 
as  they  sit  empty  handed  with  children  crying  for  bread. 

But  the  abuse  of  this  amazing  power  of  consolidated  wealth 
is  its  bitterest  result  and  its  pressing  danger.  We  have  read 
of  the  robber  barons  of  the  Rhine,  who  from  their  castles  sent 
a  shot  across  the  bow  of  every  passing  craft,  and,  descending 
as  hawks  from  the  crags,  plundered  the  voyagers.  Shall  this 
shame  of  Europe  against  which  the  world  revolted  be 
repeated  in  this  free  country?  And  yet,  when  a  syndicate  or 
a  trust  can  arbitrarily  add  twenty-five  per  cent  to  the  cost 
of  a  single  article  of  common  use,  and  safely  gather  forced 
tributes  from  the  people,  where  is  the  difference — save  that 
the  castle  is  changed  to  a  broker's  office,  and  that  picturesque 
river  to  the  teeming  streets  and  broad  fields  of  this  govern- 
ment ("of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people")  ? 

I  do  not  overstate  the  case.  Economists  have  held  that 
wheat,  grown  everywhere,  could  never  be  cornered  by  capi- 
tal. And  yet  one  man  in  Chicago  tied  the  wheat  crop  in  his 
handkerchief,  and  held  it,  until  the  people  had  to  pay  him 
twenty  cents  tax  on  a  sack  of  flour.  Three  men  held  the  cot- 
ton until  the  English  spindle  stopped  and  the  lights  went  out 
of  three  million  English  homes.  The  Czar  of  Russia  would 
not  have  dared  to  do  these  things  and  yet  they  are  no  secrets 
in  this  free  government  of  ours. 

What  is  the  remedy?  To  exalt  the  hearthstone,  to 
strengthen  the  home,  to  build  up  the  individual,  and  to 
magnify  and  defend  the  principles  of  local  self  government. 
Not  in  depreciation  of  the  federal  government,  but  to  its 
glory,  not  to  weaken  the  republic,  but  to  strengthen  it. 


THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO. 


HENRT    W.    GRADY. 

(From     a     speech     before     the     Boston     Mercantile     Association, 
December,  1889.) 

Far  to  the  south  lies  the  fairest  and  richest  domain  of  this 
earth.  But  why  is  it,  though  the  sectional  line  be  now  but  a 
mist  that  the  breath  may  dispel,  fewer  men  of  the  North  have 


HENRY   W.   GRADY.  95 

crossed  it  over  to  the  South  than  when  it  was  crimson  with 
the  best  blood  of  the  Republic,  or  even  when  the  slaveholder 
stood  guard  every  inch  of  its  way?  There  can  be  but  one 
answer. 

I  thank  God  as  heartily  as  you  do  that  human  slavery  is 
gone  forever  from  the  American  soil.  But  the  freedman  re- 
mains. With  him  a  problem  without  precedent  or  parallel. 
Note  its  appalling  conditions.  Two  utterly  dissimilar  races 
on  the  same  soil — with  equal  civil  and  political  rights — almost 
equal  in  numbers,  but  terribly  unequal  in  intelligence  and 
responsibility — each  pledged  against  fusion — one  for  a  century 
in  servitude  to  the  other,  and  freed  at  last  by  a  desolating 
war — these  are  the  conditions. 

Meanwhile  we  treat  the  negro  fairly,  measuring  to  him 
justice  in  the  fullness  the  strong  should  give  to  the  weak, 
and  leading  him  in  the  steadfast  ways  of  citizenship,  that  he 
may  no  longer  be  the  prey  of  the  unscrupulous  and  the  sport 
of  the  thoughtless.  The  love  we  feel  for  that  race  you  cannot 
measure  nor  comprehend.  As  I  attest  it  here,  the  spirit  of 
my  old  black  mammy  from  her  home  up  there  looks  down  to 
bless,  and  through  the  tumult  of  this  night  steals  the  sweet 
music  of  her  crooning,  as  thirty  years  ago  she  held  me  in  her 
black  arms  and  led  me  smiling  into  sleep. 

I  catch  another  vision.  The  crisis  of  battle— a  soldier 
struck,  staggering,  fallen,  I  see  a  slave  scuffling  through  the 
smoke,  winding  his  black  arms  about  the  fallen  form,  reck- 
less of  the  hurtling  death,  bending  his  trusty  face  to  catch 
the  words  that  tremble  on  the  stricken  lips,  so  wrestling 
meantime  with  agony  that  he  would  lay  down  his  life  in  his 
master's  stead.  I  see  him  by  the  weary  bedside,  ministering 
with  uncomplaining  patience,  praying  with  all  his  humble 
heart  that  God  will  lift  his  master  up,  until  death  comes  in 
mercy  and  in  honor  to  still  the  soldier's  agony  and  seal  the 
soldier's  life.  I  see  him  by  the  open  grave,  mute,  motionless, 
uncovered,  suffering  for  the  death  of  him  who  in  life  fought 
against  his  freedom. 

I  see  him  when  the  mound  is  heaped  and  the  great  drama 
of  his  life  is  closed,  turn  away  and  with  downcast  eyes  and  un- 
certain step  start  out  into  new  and  strange  fields,  faltering, 
struggling,  but  moving  on,  until  his  shambling  figure  is  lost 


96  MODERN   AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

in  the  light  of  this  better  and  brighter  day.  And  from  the 
grave  comes  a  voice,  saying:  "Follow  him!  Put  your  arms 
about  him  in  his  need,  even  as  he  once  put  his  about  me.  Be 
his  friend  as  he  was  mine."  And  out  into  the  new  world — 
strange  to  me  as  to  him,  dazzling,  bewildering  both — I  follow. 
And  may  God  forget  my  people — when  they  forget  these! 


THE  HOME  AND  THE  REPUBLIC. 

HENRY    W.    GRADY. 
(From   an   address   delivered   at   Elberton,    Ga.,   June,   1889.) 

I  went  to  Washington  the  other  day,  and  as  I  stood  on 
Capitol  Hill  my  heart  beat  quick  as  I  looked  at  the  towering 
marble  of  my  country's  Capitol,  and  the  mist  gathered  in  my 
eyes  as  I  thought  of  its  tremendous  significance,  and  the 
armies,  and  the  Treasury,  and  the  courts,  and  Congress  and 
the  President,  and  all  that  was  gathered  there.  And  I  felt 
that  the  sun  in  all  its  course  could  not  look  down  upon  a 
better  sight  than  that  majestic  home  of  the  Republic  that  had 
taught  the  world  its  best  lessons  in  liberty. 

Two  days  afterwards  I  went  to  visit  a  friend  in  the  country, 
a  modest  man,  with  a  quiet  country  home.  It  was  just  a 
simple,  unpretentious  house,  set  about  with  great  big  trees, 
encircled  in  meadow  and  fields  rich  with  the  promise  of  har- 
vest. The  fragrance  of  pink  and  hollyhock  in  the  front  yard 
was  mingled  with  the  aroma  of  the  orchard  and  of  the  garden, 
and  resonant  with  the  cluck  of  poultry  and  the  hum  of  bees. 
Inside  was  quiet,  cleanliness,  thrift  and  comfort.  Outside 
there  stood  my  friend — master  of  his  land  and  master  of 
himself.  There  was  his  old  father,  an  aged,  trembling  man, 
happy  in  the  heart  and  home  of  his  son.  And  as  they  started 
to  their  home  the  hands  of  the  old  man  went  down  on  the 
young  man's  shoulders,  laying  there  the  unspeakable  bless- 
ing of  an  honored  and  grateful  father,  and  ennobling  it  with 

the  knighthood  of  the  Fifth  commandment And  I  saw 

the  night  come  down  on  that  home,  falling  gently  as  from  the 
wings  of  an  unseen  dove,  and  the  old  man,  while  a  startled 


HENRY   W.    GRADY.  97 

bird  called  from  the  forest,  and  the  trees  shrilled  with  the 
cricket's  cry,  and  the  stars  were  swarming  in  the  sky,  got  the 
family  around  him,  and  taking  the  old  Bible  from  the  table, 
called  them  to  their  knees,  while  he  closed  the  record  of  that 
simple  day  by  calling  down  God's  blessing  on  that  family  and 
that  home.  And  while  I  gazed,  the  vision  of  the  marble 
Capitol  faded.  Forgotten  were  its  treasures  and  its  majesty, 
and  I  said:  "O,  surely,  here  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  at 
last  are  lodged  the  strength  and  responsibilities  of  this  gov- 
ernment, the  hope  and  promise  of  this  Republic." 


THE  STRICKEN  SOUTH. 


HENRY    W.    GRADY. 

(Adapted    from    an   address   at   the   State  Fair  at   Dallas,    Texas, 
October  26,  1887.) 

A  soldier  lay  wounded  on  a  hard-fought  battlefield;  the 
roar  of  the  battle  had  died  away,  and  he  rested  in  the  deathly 
stillness  of  its  aftermath.  Not  a  sound  was  heard  as  he  lay 
there,  sorely  smitten  and  speechless,  but  the  shriek  of 
wounded  and  the  sigh  of  the  dying  soul,  as  it  escaped  from 
the  turmoil  of  earth  to  the  unspeakable  peace  of  the  stars. 
Off  over  the  field  flickered  the  lanterns  of  the  surgeons,  with 
the  litter  bearers.  This  poor  soldier  watched,  unable  to  turn 
or  speak,  as  the  lanterns  drew  near.  At  last  the  light  fell  in 
his  face,  and  the  surgeon  bent  over  him,  hesitated  a  moment, 
shook  his  head,  and  was  gone.  The  wounded  soldier  watched 
in  patient  agony  as  they  went  from  one  part  of  the  field  to 
another.  As  they  came  back,  the  surgeon  bent  over  him 
again.  "I  believe  if  this  poor  fellow  lives  to  sundown  to- 
morrow he  will  get  well,"  he  said,  and  passed  on. 

All  night  long  these  words  fell  into  the  wounded  man's 
heart  as  the  dews  fell  from  the  stars  upon  his  lips,  "if  he  but 
lives  till  to-morrow's  sundown  he  will  get  well."  He  turned 
his  weary  head  to  the  east  and  watched  for  the  coming  sun. 
At  last  the  stars  went  out,  the  east  trembled  with  radiance, 
and  the  sun,  slowly  lifting  above  the  horizon,  tinged  his  pallid 


98  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

face  with  flame.  He  watched  it  inch  by  inch  as  it  climbed 
slowly  up  the  heavens.  He  thought  of  life,  its  hopes  and  am- 
bitions, its  sweetness  and  its  raptures,  and  he  fortified  hip 
soul  against  despair  until  the  sun  had  reached  high  noon. 
It  sloped  down  its  low  descent,  and  his  life  was  ebbing  away 
and  his  heart  was  faltering,  and  he  needed  stronger  stimulants 
to  make  him  stand  the  struggle  until  the  end  of  the  day  had 
come.  He  thought  of  his  far-off  home,  the  blessed  house  rest- 
ing in  tranquil  peace  with  the  roses  climbing  to  its  door,  and 
the  trees  whispering  to  its  windows;  and  dozing  in  the  sun- 
shine, the  orchard,  and  the  little  brook  running  like  a  silver 
thread  through  the  forest. 

"If  I  live  till  sundown  I  will  see  it  again.  I  will  walk  down 
the  shady  lane,  I  will  open  the  battered  gate;  and  the  mock- 
ing bird  shall  call  me  from  the  orchard,  and  I  will  drink 
again  at  the  old  mossy  spring." 

And  he  thought  of  the  wife  who  had  come  from  the  neigh- 
boring farm  house  and  put  her  hand  slyly  into  his,  and 
brought  sweetness  to  his  life  and  light  to  his  home;  he 
thought  of  the  old  father,  patient  in  prayer,  and  bending  low 
under  his  load  of  sorrow  and  old  age;  he  thought  of  the  little 
children  that  clambered  on  his  knees,  making  to  him  such 
music  as  the  world  shall  not  equal  nor  heaven  surpass;  and 
then  he  thought  of  his  old  mother,  who  gathered  these  chil- 
dren about  her  and  breathed  her  old  heart  afresh  in  their 
brightness  and  attuned  her  old  lips  anew  to  their  prattle, 
that  she  might  live  till  her  big  boy  came  home. 

"If  I  live  till  sundown  I  will  see  them  all  again,  and  weep 
away  all  memories  of  this  desolate  night."  And  the  Son  of 
God,  who  had  died  for  men,  bending  from  the  stars,  put  His 
hand  on  the  ebbing  life  and  held  on  the  staunch  until  the  sun 
went  down,  and  the  stars  came  out  and  shone  in  the  brave 
man's  heart  and  blurred  in  his  glistening  eyes,  and  the 
lanterns  of  the  surgeons  came  and  he  was  taken  from  death 
to  life. 

The  world  is  a  battlefield,  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  gov- 
ernments and  institutions,  of  theories  and  faiths  that  have 
gone  down  in  the  ravages  of  years.  On  this  field  lies  the 
South,  sown  with  her  problems.  Upon  the  field  swings  the 
lanterns  of  God.  Amid  the  carnage  walks  the  great  Physi- 


HENRY  W.   GRADY.  99 

cian.  Over  the  South  He  bends.  "If  ye  but  live  until  tomor- 
row's sundown,  ye  shall  endure,  my  countrymen."  Let  us 
for  her  sake  turn  our  faces  to  the  east  and  watch  as  the 
soldier  watched  for  the  coming  sun.  Let  us  staunch  her 
wounds  and  hold  steadfast.  The  sun  mounts  the  skies.  As 
it  descends,  let  us  minister  to  her  and  stand  constant  at  her 
side  for  the  sake  of  our  children,  and  of  generations  yet  un- 
born that  shall  suffer  if  she  fails.  And  when  the  sun  has 
gone  down  and  the  day  of  her  probation  has  ended,  and  the 
stars  have  rallied  her  heart,  the  lanterns  shall  be  swung  over 
the  field  and  the  Great  Physician  shall  lead  her  upward  from 
trouble  into  content,  from  suffering  into  peace,  from  death  to 
life. 


100  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

EULOGY  OM  QRADY. 

JOHN    TEMPLE     GRAVES. 
(Delivered  at  a  Memorial  meeting1,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  December  21,  1889.) 

I  am  one  among  the  thousands  who  loved  Henry  Grady, 
and  I  stand  among  the  millions  who  lament  his  death.  I 
loved  him  in  the  promise  of  his  glowing  youth,  when  across 
my  boyish  vision  he  walked  with  winning  grace  from  easy 
effort  to  success.  I  loved  him  in  the  flush  of  his  splendid 
manhood,  when  a  nation  hung  upon  his  words — and  now  I 
love  him  best  of  all  as  he  .lies  under  the  December  skies, 
with  face  as  tranquil  and  with  smile  as  sweet  as  patrial  ever 
wore. 

I  agree  with  Patrick  Collins  that  Henry  Grady  was  the  most 
brilliant  son  of  the  Republic;  and  I  believe,  if  the  annals  of 
these  times  are  told  with  truth,  they  will  record  him  the 
phenomenon  of  his  period.  No  eloquence  has  equalled  his 
since  Sargent  Prentiss  faded  from  the  earth.  No  pen  has 
plowed  such  noble  furrows  in  his  country's  fallow  fields  since 
the  wrist  of  Horace  Greely  rested.  No  age  of  the  Republic 
has  witnessed  such  marvelous  conjunction,  of  a  magic  pen 
with  the  splendor  of  a  mellow  tongue.  I  have  loved  to  follow 
the  pathway  of  that  diamond  pen  as  it  flashed  like  an  inspira- 
tion over  every  phase  of  life  in  Georgia.  It  touched  the  sick 
body  of  a  despairing  agriculture  with  the  impulse  of  a  better 
method.  Its  brave  point  went  with  cheerful  prophecy  and 
engaging  manliness  into  the  ranks  of  toil,  until  the  workman 
at  his  anvil  felt  the  dignity  of  labor.  Into  the  field  of 
practical  politics  it  dashed  with  the  grace  of  an  earlier  chiv- 
alry, and  in  an  age  of  pushing  and  unseemly  scramble,  it  woke 
the  spirit  of  a  loftier  sentiment;  while  around  the  charming 
pleader  there  grew  up  a  company  of  youth  linked  to  the  Re- 
public's nobler  legends  and  holding  fast  that  generous  loy- 
alty which  builds  the  highest  bulwark  of  the  state. 

Long  after  he  made  his  way  to  eminence  and  influence  as 
a  writer,  he  waked  the  power  of  that  surpassing  oratory, 
which  has  bettered  all  the  sentiment  of  his  country  and  en- 
riched the  vocabulary  of  the  world.  Nothing  in  the  history 
of  human  speech  has  ever  equalled  the  stately  stepping  of 


JOHN  TEMPLE   GRAVES-,'  19i 

his  eloquence  into  glory.  In  a  single  night  he  caught  the 
heart  of  his  country  and  leaped  from  a  banquet's  gaiety  into 
national  fame.  It  is  the  crowning  evidence  of  his  genius 
that  he  held  to  the  end,  unbroken,  the  fame  so  easily  won. 
And  sweeping  from  triumph  unto  triumph,  with  not  one  leaf 
of  his  laurels  withered  by  time  or  staled  by  circumstance — 
he  died  on  yesterday,  the  foremost  orator  of  all  the  world. 

I  have  seen  the  gleam  from  the  headlight  of  some  giant 
engine  rushing  onward  through  the  darkness,  heedless  of 
opposition,  fearless  of  danger;  and  I  thought  it  was  grand. 
I  have  seen  the  light,  come  over  the  eastern  hills  in  glory, 
driving  the  lazy  darkness  before  it,  till  leaf  and  tree  and 
blade  of  grass  glittered  in  the  myriad  diamonds  of  the  morn- 
ing ray;  and  I  thought  that  was  grand.  I  have  seen  the  light 
that  leaped  at  midnight  athwart  the  storm-swept  sky,  shiver- 
ing over  chaotic  clouds,  'mid  howling  winds,  till  cloud  and 
darkness  and  shadow-haunted  earth  flashed  into  mid-day 
splendor;  and  I  knew  that  was  grand. 

But  the  grandest  thing,  next  to  the  radiance  that  flows 
from  the  Almighty  Throne,  is  the  light  of  a  noble  and  beauti- 
ful life,  wrapping  itself  in  benediction  round  the  destinies 
of  men,  and  finding  its  home  in  the  bosom  of  the  everlasting 
God. 


MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


THE  MINUTE  MAN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

(From  his  oration  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  Concord  Fight, 
Concord,  Mass.,  April  19,  1876.) 

The  Minute  Man  of  the  American  Revolution!  And  who 
was  he?  He  was  the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young. 
He  was  the  husband  and  father,  who  left  his  plow  in  the 
furrow  and  his  hammer  on  the  bench,  and  marched  to  die  or 
to  be  free.  He  was  the  son  and  lover,  the  plain,  shy  youth 
of  the  singing  school  and  the  village  choir,  whose  heart  beat 
to  arms  for  his  country  and  who  felt,  though  he  could  not 
say,  with  the  old  English  cavalier: 

"I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much, 
Loved  I  not  honor  more." 

He  was  the  man  who  was  willing  to  pour  out  his  life's  blood 
for  a  principle.  Intrenched  in  his  own  honesty,  the  king's 
gold  could  not  buy  him;  enthroned  in  the  love  of  his  fellow 
citizens,  the  king's  writ  could  not  take  him;  and  when,  on 
the  morning  at  Lexington,  the  king's  troops  marched  to  seize 
him,  his  sublime  faith  saw,  beyond  the  clouds  of  the  moment, 
the  rising  sun  of  the  America  we  behold,  and,  careless  of  self, 
mindful  only  of  his  country,  he  exultingly  exclaimed,  "Oh, 
what  a  glorious  morning!"  And  then,  amid  the  flashing  hills, 
the  ringing  woods,  the  flaming  roads,  he  smote  with  terror 
the  haughty  British  column,  and  sent  it  shrinking,  bleeding, 
wavering,  and  reeling  through  the  streets  of  the  village,  panic 
stricken  and  broken. 

Him  we  gratefully  recall  to-day;  him  we  commit  in  his 
immortal  youth  to  the  reverence  of  our  children.  And  here 
amid  these  peaceful  fields, — here  in  the  heart  of  Middlesex 
County,  of  Lexington  and  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill, — stand 
fast,  Son  of  Liberty,  as  the  minute  men  stood  at  the  old 
North  Bridge.  But  should  we  or  our  descendants,  false  to 
justice  and  humanity,  betray  in  any  way  their  cause,  spring 
into  life  as  a  hundred  years  ago,  take  one  more  step,  descend, 
and  lead  us,  as  God  led  you  in  saving  America,  to  save  the 
hopes  of  man. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS.  103 

No  hostile  fleet,  for  many  a  year,  has  vexed  the  waters  of 
our  coast;  nor  is  any  army  but  our  own  ever  likely  to  tread 
our  soil.  Not  such  are  our  enemies  to-day.  They  do  not 
come,  proudly  stepping  to  the  drum  beat,  their  bayonets 
flashing  in  the  morning  sun.  But  wherever  party  spirit  shall 
strain  the  ancient  guarantees  of  freedom;  or  bigotry  and 
ignorance  shall  lay  their  fatal  hands  on  education;  or  the 
arrogance  of  caste  shall  strike  at  equal  rights;  or  corruption 
shall  poison  the  very  springs  of  national  life, — there,  Minute 
Men  of  Liberty,  are  your  Lexington  Green  and  Concord 
Bridge.  And  as  you  love  your  country  and  your  kind,  and 
would  have  your  children  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed,  spare 
not  the  enemy.  Over  the  hills,  out  of  the  earth,  down  from 
the  clouds,  pour  in  resistless  might.  Fire  from  every  rock 
and  tree,  from  door  and  window,  from  hearthstone  and  cham- 
ber. Hang  upon  his  flank  from  morn  till  sunset,  and  so, 
through  a  land  blazing  with  holy  indignation,  hurl  the  hordes 
of  ignorance  and  corruption  and  injustice  back, — back  in 
utter  defeat  and  ruin. 


NATIONS  AND  HUMANITY. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 
(From  his  lecture  on  "Patriotism.") 

It  was  not  his  olive  valleys  and  orange  groves  which  made 
the  Greece  of  the  Greek;  it  was  not  for  his  apple  orchards 
or  potato  fields  that  the  farmer  of  New  England  and  New 
York  left  his  plough  in  the  furrow  and  marched  to  Bunker 
Hill,  to  Bennington,  to  Saratoga.  A  man's  country  is  not  a 
certain  area  of  land,  but  it  is  a  principle;  and  patriotism  Is 
loyalty  to  that  principle.  The  secret  sanctification  of  the  soil 
and  symbol  of  a  country  is  the  idea  which  they  represent; 
and  this  idea  the  patriot  worships  through  the  name  and  the 
symbol. 

So  with  passionate  heroism,  of  which  tradition  is  never 
weary  of  tenderly  telling,  Arnold  von  Winkelreid  gathers  into 
his  bosom  the  sheaf  of  foreign  spears.  So  Nathan  Hale,  dis- 
daining no  service  that  duty  demands,  perishes  untimely  with 


104  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

no  other  friend  than  God  and  the  satisfied  sense  of  duty.  So, 
through  all  history  from  the  beginning,  a  noble  army  of  mar- 
tyrs has  fought  fiercely  and  fallen  bravely,  for  that  unseen 
mistress,  their  country. 

History  shows  us  that  the  association  of  men  in  various 
nations  is  made  subservient  to  the  gradual  advance  of  the 
whole  human  race;  and  that  all  nations  work  together  to- 
wards one  grand  result.  So,  to  the  philosophic  eye,  the  race 
is  but  a  vast  caravan  forever  moving,  but  seeming  often  to 
encamp  for  centuries  at  some  green  oasis  of  ease,  where 
luxury  lures  away  heroism,  as  soft  Capua  enervated  the  hosts 
of  Hannibal. 

But  still  the  march  proceeds,  slowly,  slowly,  over  moun- 
tains, through  valleys,  along  plains,  marking  its  course  with 
monumental  splendors,  with  wars,  plagues,  crime,  advancing 
still,  decorated  with  all  the  pomp  of  nature,  lit  by  the  constel- 
lations, cheered  by  the  future,  warned  by  the  past.  In  that 
vast  march,  the  van  forgets  the  rear;  the  individual  is  lost; 
and  yet  the  multitude  is  but  many  individuals.  Man  faints, 
and  falls,  and  dies,  and  is  forgotten;  but  still  mankind  moves 
on,  still  worlds  revolve,  and  the  will  of  God  is  done  in  earth 
and  heaven. 

We  of  America,  with  our  soil  sanctified  and  our  symbol 
glorified  by  the  great  ideas  of  liberty  and  religion, — love  of 
freedom  and  love  of  God, — are  in  the  foremost  vanguard  of 
this  great  caravan  of  humanity.  To  us  the  nations  look,  and 
learn  to  hope,  while  they  rejoice.  Our  heritage  is  all  the  love 
and  heroism  of  liberty  in  the  past;  and  all  the  great  of  the 
"Old  World"  are  our  teachers. 

And  so  with  our  individual  hearts  strong  in  love  for  our 
principles,  shall  the  nation  leave  to  coming  generations  a 
heritage  of  freedom,  and  law,  and  religion,  and  truth,  more 
glorious  than  the  world  has  known  before;  and  our  American 
banner  be  planted  first  and  highest  on  heights  as  yet  unwon 
in  the  great  march  of  humanity. 


GEORGE   WILLIAM  CURTIS.  105 

THE  ENGLISH  PURITAN. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

(From  an  oration  delivered  at  the  Unveiling  of  the  Puritan  statue, 
at  Central  Park,   New  York,  June  6,  1885.) 

If  ever  England  had  an  heroic  age,  it  was  that  which  began 
by  supporting  the  Tudor  in  his  rupture  with  Rome,  and  ended 
by  seeing  the  last  of  the  Stuart  kings  exiled  forever.  This 
was  the  age  of  Puritan  England,  the  England  in  which  liberty 
finally  organized  itself  in  constitutional  reforms,  so  flexible 
and  enduring  that  for  nearly  two  centuries  the  internal  peace 
of  the  kingdom,  however  threatened  and  alarmed,  has  never 
been  broken.  The  modern  England  that  we  know  is  the 
England  of  the  Puritan  enlarged,  liberalized,  graced,  adorned, 
— the  England  which,  despite  all  estrangement  and  jealousy 
and  misunderstanding,  is  still  the  mother  country  of  our  dis- 
tinctive America. 

To  what  land  upon  the  globe,  beyond  his  own,  shall  the 
countryman  of  Washington  turn  with  pride  and  enthusiasm 
and  sympathy,  if  not  to  the  land  of  John  Selden  and  John 
Hampden  and  John  Milton?  She  is  not  the  mother  of  dead 
empires,  but  of  the  greatest  political  descendant  that  ever 
the  world  knew.  She  has  sins  enough  to  answer  for,  but  while 
Greece  gave  us  art  and  Rome  gave  us  law,  in  the  very  blood 
that  beats  in  our  hearts  and  throbs  along  our  veins,  England 
gave  us  liberty. 

When  Elizabeth  died,  the  sturdy,  steadfast  middle  class,  the 
class  from  which  the  English  character  and  strength  have 
sprung,  were  chiefly  Puritans.  Puritans  taught  in  the  univer- 
sities and  sat  on  the  bench  of  bishops.  They  were  peers  in 
Parliament,  they  were  ambassadors  and  secretaries  of  state. 
Hutchinson,  graced  with  every  accomplishment  of  the  English 
gentleman,  was  a  Puritan.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  by  whose  side 
sat  justice,  was  a  Puritan.  John  Pym,  most  strenuous  of  Par- 
liamentary leaders,  was  a  Puritan.  A  fanatic?  Yes,  in  the  high 
sense  of  unchangeable  fidelity  to  a  sublime  idea;  a  fanatic  like 
Joseph  Warren,  whom  the  glory  of  patriotism  transfigured 
upon  Bunker  Hill. 


106  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

This  was  the  fanatic  who  read  the  Bible  to  the  English 
people,  and  quickened  English  life  with  the  fire  of  primeval 
faith;  who  smote  the  Spaniard,  and  swept  the  pirates  from 
the  sea,  and  rode  with  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides,  praising 
God. 

In  all  history  do  you  see  a  nobler  figure?  Forth  from  the 
morning  of  Greece,  come,  Leonidas,  with  your  bravest  of  the 
brave;  in  the  rapt  city,  plead,  Demosthenes,  your  country's 
cause;  pluck,  Gracchus,  from  aristocratic  Rome  her  crown; 
speak,  Cicero,  your  magic  word;  lift,  Cato,  your  admonishing 
hand;  and  you,  patriots  of  modern  Europe,  be  all  gratefully 
remembered;  but  where,  in  the  earlier  ages,  in  the  later  day, 
shall  we  find  loftier  self  sacrifice,  more  unstained  devotion 
to  worthier  ends,  issuing  in  happier  results  to  the  highest 
interests  of  man,  than  in  the  English  Puritan? 


THE  GREATNESS  OF  THE  POET. 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

(From  an  address  at  the  Unveiling  of  the  statue  of  Robert  Burns, 
in  Central  Park,  October  2,  1880.) 

Until  we  know  why  the  rose  is  sweet,  or  the  dew-drop  pure, 
or  the  rainbow  beautiful,  we  cannot  know  why  the  poet  is  the 
best  benefactor  of  humanity.  Whether  because  he  reveals  us 
to  ourselves  or  because  he  teaches  the  soul  with  the  fervor 
of  divine  aspiration,  whether  because  in  a  world  of  sordid 
and  restless  anxiety  he  fills  us  with  serene  joy,  or  puts  into 
rythmic  and  permanent  form  the  best  thoughts  and  hopes  of 
man — who  shall  say?  (How  the  faith  of  Christendom  has 
been  staid  for  centuries  upon  the  mighty  words  of  the  old 
Hebrew  bards  and  prophets,  and  how  the  vast  and  inexpressi- 
ble mystery  of  divine  love  and  power  and  purpose  has  been 
breathed  in  parable  and  poem!  J 

The  poet's  genius  is  an  unconscious  but  sweet  and  elevating 
influence  in  our  national  life.  It  is  not  a  power  dramatic, 
obvious,  imposing,  immediate  like  that  of  the  statesman,  the 
warrior,  and  the  inventor,  but  it  is  as  deep  and  strong  and 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS.  107 

abiding.  The  soldier  fights  for  his  native  land,  but  the  poet 
touches  that  land  with  the  charm  that  makes  it  worth  fight- 
ing for,  and  fires  the  warrior's  heart  with  the  fierce  energy 
that  makes  his  blow  invincible.  The  statesman  enlarges  and 
orders  liberty  in  the  states,  but  the  poet  fosters  the  love  of 
liberty  in  the  heart  of  the  citizen.  The  inventor  multiplies 
the  facilities  of  life,  but  the  poet  makes  life  better  worth 
living. 

Robert  Burns  transfigured  the  country  of  his  birth  and 
love.  Every  bird  and  flower,  every  hill  and  dale  and  river 
whisper  and  repeat  his  name.  When  he  died  there  was  not 
a  Scotchman  who  was  not  proud  of  being  a  Scotchman.  But 
he,  as  all  great  poets,  as  they  turn  to  music  the  emotions  of 
humanity,  pass  from  the  exclusive  love  of  their  own  country 
into  the  reverence  of  the  world. 


THE  PUBLIC  DUTY  OF  EDUCATED  MEN. 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

(From  a  Commencement  Address  at  Union  College,  June  27,  1877.) 
Public  duty  in  this  country  is  not  disharged,  as  is  so  often 
supposed,  by  voting.  A  man  may  vote  regularly,  and  still  fail 
essentially  of  his  political  duty,  as  the  Pharisee  who  gave 
tithes  of  all  that  he  possessed  and  fasted  three  times  in  the 
week,  yet  lacked  the  very  heart  of  religion.  When  an  Amer- 
ican citizen  is  content  with  voting  merely,  he  consents  to  ac- 
cept what  is  often  a  doubtful  alternative.  His  first  duty  is 
to  help  shape  the  alternative.  This,  which  was  formerly  less 
necessary,  is  now  indispensable.  In  a  rural  community  such 
as  this  country  was  a  hundred  years  ago,  whoever  was  nom- 
inated for  office  was  known  to  his  neighbors,  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  that  knowledge  was  a  conservative  influence  in 
determining  nominations.  But  in  the  local  elections  of  the 
great  cities  of  to-day,  elections  that  control  taxation  and  ex- 
penditure, the  mass  of  the  voters  vote  in  absolute  ignorance 
of  the  candidates.  The  citizen  who  supposes  that  he  does  all 
his  duty  when  he  votes  places  a  premium  upon  political  knav- 
ery. Thieves  welcome  him  to  the  polls  and  offer  him  a 


108  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

choice,  which  he  has  done  nothing  to  prevent,  between  Jeremy 
Diddler  and  Dick  Turpin.  The  party  cries  for  which  he  is 
responsible  are:  "Turpin  and  Honesty,"  "Diddler  and  Re- 
form." 

There  is  not  an  American  merchant  who  would  send  a  ship 
to  sea  under  the  command  of  Captain  Kidd,  however  skill- 
ful a  sailor  he  might  be.  Why  should  he  vote  to  send  Captain 
Kidd  to  the  legislature  or  to  put  him  in  command  of  the  ship 
of  state  because  his  party  directs?  The  party  which  to-day 
nominates  Captain  Kidd  will  to-morrow  nominate  Judas  Is- 
cariot,  and  to-morrow,  as  to-day,  party  spirit  will  spurn  you 
as  a  traitor  for  refusing  to  sell  your  master. 

But  let  us  not  be  deceived.  While  good  men  sit  at  home, 
not  knowing  that  there  is  anything  to  be  done,  nor  caring 
to  know;  cultivating  a  feeling  that  politics  are  tiresome  and 
dirty,  and  politicians  vulgar  bullies  and  bravoes;  half-per- 
suaded that  a  republic  is  the  contemptible  rule  of  a  mob,  and 
secretly  longing  for  a  splendid  and  vigorous  despotism — 
then  remember  it  is  not  a  government  mastered  by  ignorance, 
it  is  a  government  betrayed  by  intelligence;  it  is  not  the 
victory  of  the  slums,  it  is  the  surrender  of  the  schools;  it 
is  not  that  bad  men  are  brave,  but  that  good  men  are  in- 
fidels and  cowards. 


THE  VICTOR  OF  MARENQO. 

Anonymous. 

Napoleon  was  sitting  in  his  tent.  Before  him  lay  the  map  of 
Italy.  He  took  four  pins,  stuck  them  up,  measured,  moved 
the  pins,  and  measured  again.  "Now,"  said  he,  "that  is  right. 
I  will  capture  him  there."  "Who,  sire?"  said  an  officer. 
"Melas,  the  old  fox  of  Austria.  He  will  return  from  Genoa, 
pass  through  Turin,  and  fall  back  on  Alexandria.  I  will  cross 
the  Po,  meet  him  on  the  plains  of  La  Servia,  and  conquer 
him  there."  And  the  finger  of  the  child  of  destiny  pointed 
to  Marengo. 

Two  months  later,  the  memorable  campaign  of  1800  began. 
The  20th  of  May  saw  Napoleon  on  the  heights  of  St.  Bernard; 
the  22d,  Lannes,  with  the  army  of  Genoa,  held  Ivrae.  So  far 


THE   VICTOR   OF   MARENGO.  109 

all  had  gone  well  with  Napoleon.  He  had  compelled  the 
Austrians  to  take  the  position  he  desired,  had  reduced  their 
army  from  120,000  to  40,000  men,  dispatched  Desaix  to  the 
right,  and  on  June  14th,  moved  forward  to  consummate  his 
masterly  plan. 

But  God  thwarted  his  schemes.  In  the  gorges  of  the  Alps 
a  few  drops  of  rain  had  fallen,  and  the  Po  could  not  be 
crossed  in  time.  Melas,  pushed  to  the  wall  by  Lannes,  rested 
to  cut  his  way  out;  and  Napoleon  reached  the  field  to  see 
Lannes  beaten,  Champeaux  dead  and  Kellerman  still  charging. 
Old  Melas  poured  his  Austrian  phalanx  on  Marengo  till  the 
Consular  Guard  gave  way,  and  the  well-planned  victory  of  Na- 
poleon became  a  terrible  defeat..  Just  as  the  day  was  lost, 
Desaix,  the  boy  general,  came  sweeping  across  the  field  at  the 
head  of  his  cavalry  and  halted  near  the  eminence  where  stood 
Napoleon.  In  the  corps  was  a  drummer  boy,  a  gamin,  whom 
Desaix  had  picked  up  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  and  who  had 
followed  the  victorious  eagles  of  France  in  the  campaign 
of  Egypt  and  Austria. 

As  the  column  halted  Napoleon  shouted  to  him:  "Beat  a 
retreat."  The  boj-  did  not  stir.  "Gamin,  beat  a  retreat!" 
The  boy  grasped  his  drumsticks,  stepped  forward  and  said: 
"Oh,  sire,  I  don't  know  how.  Desaix  never  taught  me  that. 
But  I  can  beat  a  charge.  Oh!  I  can  beat  a  charge  that  would 
make  the  dead  fall  in  line.  I  beat  that  charge  at  the  pyramids 
once,  and  I  beat  it  at  Mount  Tabor,  and  I  beat  it  again  at  the 
Bridge  of  Lodi.  May  I  beat  it  here?" 

Napoleon  turned  to  Desaix:  "We  are  beaten;  what  shall 
we  do?"  "Do?  Beat  them!  It  is  only  three  o'clock;  there  is 
time  to  win  a  victory  yet.  Up!  gamin,  the  charge!  Beat  the 
old  charge  of  Mount  Tabor  and  Lodi!"  A  moment  later  the 
corps,  following  the  sword  gleam  of  Desaix  and  keeping  step 
to  the  furious  roll  of  the  gamin's  drum,  swept  down  on  the 
hosts  of  Austria.  They  drove  the  first  line  back  on  the  sec- 
ond, the  second  back  on  the  third,  and  there  they  died.  De- 
saix fell  at  the  first  volley,  but  the  line  never  faltered.  As 
the  smoke  cleared  away,  in  the  front  of  the  line  was  seen  the 
gamin,  still  beating  the  furious  charge,  as  over  the  dead  and 
wounded,  over  the  breastworks  and  ditches,  over  the  cannon 
and  rear  guard,  he  led  the  way  to  victory!  And  the  fifteen 
days  in  Italy  were  ended. 


110  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

To-day  men  point  to  Marengo  with  wonderment.  They  laud 
the  power  and  foresight  that  so  skillfully  planned  the  battle; 
\>ut  they  forget  that  Napoleon  failed,  they  forget  that  he  was 
defeated;  they  forget  that  a  general  only  thirty  years  old  made 
a  victory  of  the  Great  Conqueror's  defeat,  and  that  a  gamin  of 
Paris  put  to  shame  the  Child  of  Destiny. 


THE  NATIONAL  FLAG. 

Adapted. 

I  have  seen  the  glories  of  art  and  architecture,  and  moun- 
tain and  river;  I  have  seen  the  sunset  on  Jungfrau,  and  the 
full  moon  rise  over  Mount  Blanc;  but  the  fairest  vision  on 
which  these  eyes  ever  looked  was  the  flag  of  my  country  in  a 
foreign  land.  Beautiful  as  a  flower  to  those  who  love  it,  ter- 
rible as  a  meteor  to  those  who  hate  it,  it  is  the  symbol  of  the 
power  and  glory,  and  the  honor  of  seventy  millions  of  Amer- 
icans. 

A  thoughtful  mind,  when  it  sees  a  nation's  flag,  sees  not 
the  flag,  but  the  nation  itself.  When  the  French  tri-color  rolls 
out  to  the  wind,  we  see  France.  When  the  new-found  Italian 
flag  is  unfurled,  we  see  unified  Italy.  When  the  united 
crosses  of  St.  Andrew  and  St.  George,  on  a  fiery  ground,  set 
forth  the  banner  of  old  England,  we  see  not  the  cloth  merely; 
there  rises  up  before  the  mind  the  idea  of  that  great  mon- 
archy. 

If  one  asks  me  the  meaning  of  our  flag,  I  say  to  him:  It 
means  just  what  Concord  and  Lexington  meant,  what  Bunker 
Hill  meant..  It  means  the  whole  glorious  Revolutionary 
war.  It  means  all  that  the  Constitution  of  our  people, 
organizing  for  justice,  for  liberty  and  for  happiness,  meant. 
Its  stripes  of  alternate  red  and  white  proclaim  the  original 
union  of  thirteen  states  to  maintain  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Its  stars,  white  on  a  field  of  blue,  proclaim  that 
union  of  states  constituting  our  national  constellation.  The 
two  together  signify  union,  past  and  present.  The  very  colors 
have  a  language  which  was  officially  recognized  by  our  fathers. 
White  is  for  purity;  red,  for  valor;  blue,  for  justice;  and  all 


THE   NATIONAL   FLAG.  Ill 

together— bunting,  stripes,  stars  and  colors,  blazing  in  the 
sky — make  the  flag  of  our  country,  to  be  cherished  by  all 
our  hearts,  to  be  upheld  by  all  our  hands. 

Under  this  banner  rode  Washington  and  his  armies.  Be- 
fore it.  Burgoyne  laid  down  his  arms.  It  waved  on  the 
highlands  at  West  Point.  It  streamed  in  light  over  the  sol- 
diers' head  at  Valley  Forge  and  at  Morristown.  It  crossed  the 
waters  rolling  with  ice  at  Trenton,  and  when  its  stars  gleamed 
in  the  cold  morning  with  victory,  a  new  day  of  hope  dawned 
on  the  despondency  of  this  nation. 

I  like  to  think  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors  as  defenders  of  the 
flag,  and  I  like  to  think  of  the  flag  as  our  defender  from 
foes  within  or  foes  without.  During  the  Cuban  revolution  of 
'73,  an  American  citizen  was  imprisoned,  and  by  a  Spanish 
court-martial  sentenced  to  be  shot  as  a  spy.  The  Amer- 
ican consul  at  Havana  demanded  a  suspension  of  the  sen- 
tence pending  an  investigation,  which  was  peremptorily  re- 
fused, and  preparations  for  the  execution  of  the  court-mar- 
tial's  finding  were  hurriedly  made.  The  prisoner  was  led 
forth,  and  a  company  of  Spanish  soldiers  stood  ready,  at  the 
word  of  command,  to  execute  the  death  warrant.  At  this 
critical  moment  appeared  the  American  consul  and,  winding 
about  the  body  of  the  prisoner  the  stars  and  stripes,  turned 
to  the  Spanish  officer  and  said:  "Now  shoot  if  you  dare!" 
The  silence  of  the  Spanish  guns  was  the  only  reply. 

When  the  events  of  to-day  shall  be  matters  of  history,  may 
our  sons  gather  strength  from  our  example  in  every  contest 
with  despotism  that  time  may  have  in  store  to  try  their  virtue, 
and  may  the  flag  emerge  from  every  conflict  with  not  a 
stripe  erased  or  polluted  or  a  single  star  obscured,  insuring 
to  America  a  just  and  lasting  peace,  and  to  the  world  a 
wider  liberty  and  a  higher  civilization. 


112  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

SAM  HOUSTON  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


Adapted. 

A  strong  upholder  of  the  Union,  Houston  led  the  fight 
to  keep  Texas  from  joining  the  seceding  states.  In  a  speech 
at  Galveston  in  the  spring  of  '61,  he  prophesied  the  failure 
of  the  Confederacy  and  overcame  the  opposition  of  the  seces- 
sionists by  his  personal  presence.  But  events  were  too 
strong  for  him.  The  position  of  Texas  made  her  naturally 
a  member  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  The  people  were 
mainly  Southern,  and  when  the  Federal  government  pro- 
claimed its  purpose  of  coercing  the  seceding  states,  all  but  a 
few  threw  themselves  heart  and  soul  into  the  Confederate 
cause.  Likewise  did  Houston.  "Now  that  not  only  coercion, 
but  a  vindictive  war,  is  to  be  inaugurated,"  he  said,  in  a 
speech  at  Waco  on  May  10,  1861,  "whether  I  was  treated  justly 
or  unjustly  in  being  deposed  as  governor,  is  not  now  to  be 
considered.  I  put  all  that  under  my  feet  and  there  it  shall 
stay.  Let  those  who  stood  by  me  do  the  same,  and  let  us 
all  show  at  a  time  when  perils  environ  our  beloved  land,  that 
we  know  how  to  be  patriots  and  Texans." 

Refusing  the  offer  of  a  major-general's  commission  from 
President  Lincoln,  Houston  fitted  out  his  eldest  son  for  the 
Confederate  service.  During  the  first  year  of  the  war,  Col. 
Moore  had  organized  a  splendid  regiment  of  1,100  young  men, 
volunteers  mostly  from  Galveston,  of  which  Sam  Houston, 
Jr.,  was  a  member.  The  Colonel  was  justly  proud  of  them 
and  was  fond  of  exhibiting  their  superior  drill  and  "dress" 
to  the  public.  Before  leaving  the  island  for  the  seat  of  war, 
the  Colonel  invited  General  Houston  to  review  his  regiment. 
Now  Judge  Campbell,  of  one  of  the  judicial  districts  of  Texas, 
and  Williamson  S,  Oldham,  member  of  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress, had  been  Houston's  bitter  enemies  during  the 
canvass  on  secession.  They  had  followed  him  night  and  day 
throughout  the  state.  On  the  day  set  for  him  to  review  and 
put  the  regiment  through  some  military  evolutions,  the  Gen- 
eral was  on  hand  at  the  hour  and  place.  A  large  concourse 
of  people  had  assembled  to  witness  the  performance.  The 
regiment  stood  in  perfect  "dress"  and  at  "present  arms" 


SAM   HOUSTON   AND   THE   CIVIL   WAR.  113 

when  General  Houston  appeared  in  front.  There  he  stood  in 
the  same  military  suit  he  had  worn  in  1836  at  the  battle  of 
San  Jacinto, — his  pants  tucked  in  the  top  of  his  military 
boots;  suspended  at  his  side  was  the  same  old  sword,  and  on 
his  head  was  a  weather-beaten,  light-colored  broad-brimmed 
planter  hat,  the  left  side  buttoned  up  to  the  crown.  It  was  a 
sight  for  sensation.  All  eyes  were  now  upon  him,  and  many 
a  throat  of  soldier  and  spectator  was  choking  down  feelings 
unutterable.  Not  a  word  had  passed  the  General's  lips, 
but  now  the  Colonel  passed  him  his  own  sword  and  told  him 
to  proceed.  Then  came:  "Shoulder  arms.  Right  about  face!" 
The  regiment  now  facing  to  the  rear,  the  General  cried  out  in 
stentorian  tones  of  sarcasm:  "Do  you  see  anything  of  Judge 
Campbell  or  Williamson  S.  Oldham  here?"  "No,"  was  the  em- 
phatic reply.  "Well,"  said  the  General,  "they  are  not  found 
at  the  front  nor  even  at  the  rear." 

"Right  about,  front  face,  eyes  right.  Do  you  see  anything 
of  Judge  Campbell's  son  here?" 

"No;  he  has  gone  to  Paris  to  school,"  responded  the  regi- 
ment. "Eyes  left.  Do  you  see  anything  of  young  Sam  Hous- 
ton here?"  "Yes,"  was  the  thrilling  response. 

"Eyes  front.  Do  you  see  anything  of  old  Sam  Houston 
here?"  By  this  time  the  climax  of  excitement  was  reached  and 
the  regiment  and  citizens  responded  in  thunder  tones,  "Yes!" 
and  then  united  in  a  triple  round  of  three  times  three  for  the 
venerable  Hero  of  San  Jacinto. 


114  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

EULOGY  OF  TEXAS  VETERANS. 

DUDLEY   G.   WOOTEN. 

(Peroration   of  an  address   delivered   before   the  Veterans   of  the 
Texas  Republic,  at  Dallas,  Texas,  April  21,  1898.) 

Veterans  of  Texas,  the  men  whose  labor  and  sacrifice  estab- 
lished the  independence  and  guided  the  early  destinies  of 
Texas,  are  fast  disappearing.  Most  of  them  have  already 
taken  their  stations  on  the  "mount  of  remembrance."  A  few 
of  you  are  left  to  view  from  the  summit  of  an  honorable  old 
age  the  land  you  rescued  and  the  posterity  you  blessed.  You, 
too,  will  soon  have  been  gathered  home,  and  it  may  ere  long 
be  said  of  you  all: 

"Their  part  in  all  the  pomp  that  fills 
The  glory  of  the  summer  hills, 
Is  that  their  graves  are  green." 

But  the  deeds  you  accomplished  and  the  work  you  leave 
behind  you  will  make  your  names  sweet  in  the  mouths  of 
men,  and  your  memory  sacred  in  the  minds  of  the  descend- 
ants whose  freedom  and  happiness  you  secured.  It  was  the 
boast  of  Augustus  that  he  found  Rome  built  of  brick  and  left 
it  built  of  marble.  You  may  justly  indulge  a  prouder  boast 
than  that  of  the  imperial  egotist.  You  found  this  country  a 
wilderness  and  you  leave  it  a  populous  and  enlightened  com- 
munity; you  found  it  a  feeble  and  impoverished  province, 
struggling  against  barbarism  and  crushed  by  tyranny — you 
will  leave  it  a  powerful  and  enlightened  state,  blessed  with 
civilization  and  rejoicing  in  the  possession  of  free  and  popu- 
lar institutions;  you  found  its  plains  a  trackless  waste  of  un- 
productive territory,  you  will  leave  them  swarming  with  a 
thousand  herds  and  rich  in  fertile  fields.  Rivers  that  were 
then  traversed  only  by  the  solitary  canoe  of  the  Indian  or 
the  rude  raft  of  some  sturdy  pioneer,  now  sweep  down  to  the 
sea  by  vast  and  growing  cities,  through  a  land  vocal  with  the 
sounds  of  peaceful  labor  and  bright  with  the  splendor  of  a 
vigorous  prosperity,  while  every  little  babbling  brook  hastens 
with  silver  tinkling  feet  to  tell  it  to  the  ocean.  In  these  va- 
ried and  enduring  monuments  of  your  love  and  labor,  as  well 
as  in  the  grateful  hearts  of  your  countrymen,  you  may  read 


DUDLEY   G.    WOOTEN.  115 

at  once  the  eulogy  and  the  epitaph  of  your  long  and  noble 
and  useful  lives. 

Citizens  of  Dallas,  it  has  been  your  privilege  to  entertain 
many  and  illustrious  guests.  The  conclaves  of  political  and 
commercial  power  have  assembled  in  your  halls  and  received 
your  homage.  Convocations  of  religious  and  secular  learn- 
ing have  shared  your  hospitality  and  challenged  your  rever- 
ence. But  I  say  to  you  to-day  that  in  all  her  past  history 
and  in  all  her  future  experience,  this  great  city  has  not  paid 
and  will  never  pay  the  tribute  of  veneration  and  loyalty  to 
as  noble  a  gathering  as  this  little  handful  of  heroes,  upon 
whose  youthful  brows  patriotism  set  the  seal  of  approval, 
around  whose  lifelong  career  shines  the  halo  of  a  consecrated 
courage,  and  upon  whose  bowed  and  whitened  heads  to-day 
I  invoke  the  benediction  of  a  state's  gratitude  and  3ove. 


THE  AMERICAN  STUDENT  TYPE. 

BENJAMIN  IDE   WHEELER. 

(Adapted   from  an  address   at  the  public   exercises  of   the  Alpha 
Delta  Phi  Fraternity,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  May  7,  1890.) 

Every  one  who  has  visited  an  English  university  town  has 
remarked  the  high  inclosures  of  the  college  yard,  the  retire- 
ment of  the  gardens,  the  monkish  cells  that  serve  as  habita- 
tions, the  stately  robes  worn  by  the  matriculate  devotees  and 
sons  of  the  prophets.  And  so  in  Germany  one  finds  still 
stranded  relics  of  the  mediaeval  student  in  the  fuss  and  feath- 
ers of  the  corps  student  "in  vollem  wichs,"  the  lozenge  cap, 
the  cavalry  boots,  the  sabre,  the  vaunted  scars,  as  well  as  in 
the  semi-obsolete  usages  of  the  college  court,  which  rescues 
indiscreet  revelers  from  the  vulgar  hands  of  the  police  court 
to  give  them  a  hearing  before  their  peers  and  commit  them 
to  the  charmed  exclusiveness  of  the  university  jail. 

Appointments  and  usages  such  as  these  are  a  recognition  of 
an  old  but  outlived  doctrine  that  the  human  race  consisted 
of  men,  women,  children  and  college  students.  A  system  such 
as  this  can  be  permanently  at  home  only  in  societies  that  are 


116  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

based  upon  a  recognition  of  classes.  It  is  and  always  was  un- 
American,  and  was  always  accompanied  in  its  application  by 
the  development  of  friction  and  waste  of  power.  The  isola- 
tion from  the  common  life  of  men,  artificially  cultivated  for 
the  brief  period  of  the  college  course,  could  only  be  main- 
tained afterwards  with  loss,  or  shaken  of£  with  pain  and  tears 
and  groanings  unutterable.  How  many  there  are  to  tell  the 
tale  of  mournful  passage  through  that  vale  of  tears  which 
drags  down  into  its  deepest  depths  the  roadway  leading  from 
the  splendid  flower-crowned  summits  of  the  commencement 
stage  to  the  plateaus  beyond! 

It  is,  then,  I  believe,  in  this  direction  that  the  type  of  the 
American  student  of  to-day,  as  compared  with  the  English 
or  German  student,  is  developing — toward  a  more  perfect  sym- 
pathy and  accord  with  the  common  life  of  men,  toward  a 
sounder  respect  for  the  nobility  of  human  effort  in  all  its 
fields,  toward  a  broader  view  of  what  is  usefulness,  and  to- 
ward a  cheerier  readiness  to  work  where  God  has  work  to  do. 

I  have  heard  people  say  in  these  latter  days,  "College  stu- 
dents are  becoming  more  civilized."  It  has  often  occurred  to 
me  to  say,  "Yes,  and  college  faculties  are  becoming  more  civ- 
ilized." Whatever  the  cause,  the  fact  is  that  the  relations  be- 
tween teacher  and  taught  are  becoming  more  natural.  They 
are  more  natural  because  they  base  more  nearly  on  the  truth 
of  things.  The  teacher  is  not,  and  by  nature  cannot  be,  an  in- 
fallible oracle.  The  best  pupil  is  not  and  cannot  be  an  autom- 
aton from  whom  the  fine-gauged  question-in-the-slot  will  al- 
ways bring  the  unerring  answer.  Much  that  has  been  called 
education  is  not  derived  from  ex  and  duco,  but  from  ex  and 
traho.  So  to  many  a  teacher,  who  could  with  more  truth  be 
called  a  dentist,  might  with  profit  be  communicated  that  rec- 
ipe which  was  brought  from  Vienna  to  a  boarding  house  mis- 
tress, who  fain  would  know  the  concocting  art  of  that  much- 
praised  Vienna  coffee:  "Put  some  in!" 

The  effect  of  the  recent  rapid  extension  of  athletic  sports 
in  college  circles  has  involved  a  certain  modification  of  the 
student  type  in  the  direction  of  manliness,  a  robust  upright- 
ness and  a  general  healthfulness.  The  typical  American  stu- 
dent is  not  a  pessimist;  he  is  not  an  Agnostic,  and  his  religion 


BENJAMINjlDE   WHEELER.  117 

is  practical  and  aggressive  rather  than  doctrinal  and  defen- 
sive; he  is  not  an  "indifferent"  in  matters  concerning  his  re- 
lations and  obligations  to  the  state. 

With  the  multiplication  of  courses  of  study  variously  adapt- 
ed to  the  character  and  interests  of  different  students,  and 
with  the  continual  humanizing  of  the  methods  of  college  in- 
struction, I  believe  we  are  developing  in  all  our  institutions 
of  the  higher  learning  a  studious  spirit  of  natural  earnest- 
ness because  based  upon  natural  interests — a  student  type 
whose  main  characteristics  are  earnestness,  manliness,  love 
of  the  intellectually  straight  and  the  morally  clean. 


INTERCOLLEGIATE  ATHLETICS. 

HARRY  L.   TAYLOR. 

We  are  told  that  intercollegiate  athletics  bear  with  them 
many  evils.  If  that  be  true,  it  is  to  be  deplored,  and  should  if 
possible  be  remedied.  If  intercollegiate  athletics  really  are, 
as  their  opponents  hold,  so  alluring,  so  destructive  of  all  am- 
bition for  aught  else,  that  they  draw  young  men  too  much 
from  the  duty  they  owe  their  intellectual  and  their  moral 
being  and  make  them  think  too  much  of  their  physical  de- 
velopment; if  intercollegiate  athletics,  by  making  a  few  finely 
trained  and  well  developed  specialists,  really  do  lessen  in  any 
degree  the  general  desire  among  college  undergraduates  to 
get  out  and  play  and  keep  strong;  if  intercollegiate  athletics 
actually  take  students  too  frequently  from  their  regular  uni- 
versity work;  if,  in  themselves,  they  promote  gambling, — then 
I  should  earnestly  advocate  putting  them  under  such  restric- 
tions as  would  minimize  these  evils  that  are  said  to  dance 
attendance.  But  why  abolish  a  good  and  useful  thing  because 
we  have  not  yet  quite  learned  to  utilize  it  properly?  Inter- 
collegiate athletics  have  done  a  great  work  in  making  young 
men  better,  not  only  physically,  but  mentally  and  morally. 
The  regular  and  earnest  physical  training  makes  the  youth 
sinewy  and  enduring.  The  hard  fighting  against  strong  op- 


118  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ponents  before  large  audiences  makes  him  stout-hearted,  un- 
flinching and  self-reliant.  The  rigorous  training  regulations 
teach  him  how  to  be  abstemious  and  to  take  pride  in  being 
able  to  be  temperate  in  all  things.  The  compulsory  subjec- 
tion to  the  captain's  orders  teaches  him  how  to  obey,  shows 
him  the  incalculable  value  of  discipline.  The  little  bruises 
and  bumps  give  the  young  man  some  small  but  useful  sam- 
ples of  the  hard  knocks  he  will  receive  when  he  gets  out  into 
the  world,  and  teach  him  how  to  take  punishment  without 
weakening,  how  to  stand  up  and  fight  manfully  and  fairly 
without  losing  his  temper  or  his  ambition.  All  this  leads 
away  from  pettiness  and  snobbishness  and  meanness  and  vice, 
and  leads  up  toward  morality,  broadness  of  mind,  courage, 
true  consideration  for  others  and  that  all-round  strength  and 
gentleness  and  sanity  that  enter  so  largely  into  the  make-up 
of  the  ideal  American  gentleman. 

Lord  Wellington  said  that  the  battle  of  Waterloo  was  won 
on  the  football  fields  of  England.  Are  not  the  intercollegiate 
athletic  fields  of  America  fitting  men  to  win  future  Water- 
loos?  Whenever  ignorant  brutality  shall  threaten  weakness, 
whenever  the  aged,  the  infirm,  our  civic  institutions  or  our 
flag  may  need  protection,  depend  upon  it  you  will  find  the 
intercollegiate  athlete  at  the  front  "hitting  the  good  ones  out 
hard"  for  the  right,  "plunging  through  the  line"  toward  the 
ramparts  behind  which  wrong  is  entrenched,  directing  every 
blow  better,  driving  them  home  harder  and  staying  more 
dauntlessly  to  the  end  because  of  the  lessons  he  learned  in 
the  days  when  he  "slid  head-first  home"  or  "dove  through  the 
center"  or  "fell  exhausted  at  the  tape"  or  "pulled  the  winning 
stroke"  for  Alma  Mater. 

Athletics  strictly  intra-collegiate  might  furnish  some  of  this 
valuable  instruction,  but  not  all  by  any  means.  The  incentive 
is  not  present.  The  chance  to  fight  against  a  foreign  foe  for 
Fatherland  furnishes  an  incentive  and  serves  to  bring  out 
latent  abilities  which  could  never  be  developed  by  an  oppor- 
tunity to  serve  on  one  side  of  a  sectional  squabble  between 
parts  of  a  common  country.  He  who  serves  his  Alma  Mater 
in  honorable,  friendly,  but  earnest  battle  against  a  team  rep- 
resenting a  sister  university  or  college,  is  turning  his  steps  to- 


HARRY  L.VTAYLOR.  119 

ward  a  spot  where  petty  sectional  rivalries  and  enmities  have 
no  place.  He  is  necessarily  being  taught  that  jealousy  and 
envy  and  sharp  practice  are  unmanly  and  despicable,  that  fair 
and  square  and  vigorous  fighting  for  a  worthy  object,  for  an 
advance  toward  a  high  ideal,  is  not  only  honorable  and  desira- 
ble, but  truly  elevating  and  manly.  The  intercollegiate  ath- 
lete who  has  been  properly  handled  should,  in  all  reason, 
become  the  foe  of  vice  and  littleness,  the  exponent  of  purity 
and  strength,  the  ever-ready  champion  of  the  right,  the  reso- 
lute defender  of  the  weak  and  the  oppressed,  the  very  flower 
of  American  chivalry. 


DEMOCRACY. 


JAMES    RUSSELL.    LOWELL. 
(Extract    from    an    address    delivered    at    Birmingham,    England, 

October  6,   1884.) 

(By  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  authorized  publishers 
of  the  works  of  Lowell.) 

The  framers  of  the  American  Constitution  were  far  from 
wishing  or  intending  to  found  a  democracy  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word,  though,  as  was  inevitable,  every  expansion  of  the 
scheme  of  government  they  elaborated  has  been  in  a  demo- 
cratical  direction.  But  this  has  been  generally  the  slow  result 
of  growth  and  not  the  sudden  innovation  of  theory;  in  fact, 
they  had  profound  disbelief  in  theory  and  knew  better  than 
to  commit  the  folly  of  breaking  with  the  past.  They  were 
not  seduced  by  the  French  fallacy  that  a  new  system  could 
be  ordered  like  a  new  suit  of  clothes.  They  would  as  soon 
thought  of  ordering  a  new  suit  of  flesh  and  skin.  It  is  only 
on  the  roaring  loom  of  time  that  the  stuff  is  woven  for  such 
a  vesture  of  their  thought  and  experience  as  they  were  medi- 
tating. Their  problem  was  how  to  adapt  English  principles 
and  precedents  to  the  new  conditions  of  American  life,  and 
they  solved  it  with  singular  discretion. 

The  English  race,  if  they  did  not  invent  government  by 
discussion,  have  at  least  carried  it  nearest  to  perfection  in 
practice.  It  seems  a  very  safe  and  reasonable  contrivance 


120  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

for  occupying  the  attention  of  the  country  and  is  certainly  a 
better  way  of  settling  questions  than  by  push  of  pike.  Yet, 
if  one  should  ask  it  why  it  should  not  rather  be  called  gov- 
ernment by  gabble,  it  would  have  to  fumble  in  its  pocket  a 
good  while  before  it  found  the  change  for  a  convincing  reply. 
As  matters  stand,  too,  it  is  beginning  to  be  doubtful  whether 
Parliament  and  Congress  sit  at  Westminster  and  Washington 
or  in  the  editors'  rooms  of  the  leading  journals,  so  thoroughly 
is  everything  debated  before  the  authorized  and  responsible 
debaters  get  on  their  legs.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  govern- 
ment by  a  majority  of  voices?  A  numerical  preponderance 
seems,  on  the  whole,  as  clumsy  a  way  of  arriving  at  truth  as 
could  well  be  devised,  but  experience  has  apparently  shown 
it  to  be  a  convenient  arrangement  for  determining  what  may 
be  expedient  or  advisable  or  practicable  at  any  given  mo- 
ment. Truth,  after  all,  wears  a  different  face  to  everybody, 
and  it  would  be  too  tedious  to  wait  till  all  were  agreed. 

Universal  suffrage  in  the  United  States  has  sometimes  been 
made  the  instrument  of  inconsiderate  changes,  under  the 
notion  of  reform,  and  this  from  a  misconception  of  the  true 
meaning  of  popular  government.  But  it  has  been  also  true 
that  on  all  great  questions  of  national  policy  a  reserve  of  pru- 
dence and  discretion  has  been  brought  out  at  the  critical  mo- 
ment to  turn  the  scale  in  favor  of  a  wiser  decision.  An  ap- 
peal to  the  reason  of  the  people  has  never  been  known  to  fail 
in  the  long  run. 

All  free  governments,  whatever  their  name,  are  in  reality 
governments  of  public  opinion,  and  it  is  on  the  quality  of  this 
public  opinion  that  their  prosperity  depends.  It  is,  therefore, 
their  first  duty  to  purify  the  element  from  which  they  draw 
the  breath  of  life.  With  the  growth  of  democracy  grows  also 
the  fear,  if  not  the  danger,  that  this  atmosphere  may  be  cor- 
rupted with  poisonous  exhalations  from  lower  and  more  ma- 
larious levels,  and  the  question,  of  sanitation  becomes  more 
instant  and  pressing.  Democracy  in  its  best  sense  is  merely 
the  letting  in  of  light  and  air.  If  we  cannot  equalize  condi- 
tions and  fortunes  any  more  than  we  can  equalize  the  brains 
of  men — and  a  very  sagacious  person  has  said  that  "where 
two  men  ride  on  a  horse  one  must  ride  behind" — we  can  yet, 


JAMESJIUSSELL   LOWELL.  121 

perhaps,  do  something  to  correct  those  methods  and  influ- 
ences that  lead  to  enormous  inequalities  and  to  prevent  their 
growing  more  enormous.  As  society  is  now  constituted,  germs 
of  disease  are  in  the  air  it  breathes,  in  the  water  it  drinks,  in 
things  that  seem,  and  which  it  has  always  believed,  to  be  the 
most  innocent  and  healthful.  Let  us  be  of  good  cheer,  how- 
ever; the  world  has  outlived  much  and  will  outlive  a  great 
deal  more.  It  has  shown  the  strength  of  its  constitution  in 
nothing  more  than  in  the  quack  medicines  it  has  tried.  In  the 
scales  of  the  destinies  brawn  will  never  weigh  so  much  as 
brain.  Our  healing  is  not  in  the  storm  or  in  the  whirlwind, 
it  is  not  in  monarchies  or  aristocracies  or  democracies,  but 
will  be  revealed  in  the  still  small  voice  that  speaks  to  the 
conscience  and  the  heart,  prompting  us  to  a  wider  and  wiser 
humanity. 


FAME. 

HENRY    W.     LONGFELLOW. 

(Extract  from  his  Essay  on  Success.    By  permission  of  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  authorized  publishers  of  Longfellow's  Works.) 

Time  has  a  doomsday  book,  upon  whose  pages  he  is  con- 
tinually recording  illustrious  names.  But  as  often  as  a  new 
name  is  written  there  an  old  one  disappears.  Only  a  few 
stand  in  illuminated  characters  never  to  be  effaced.  These 
are  the  high  nobility  of  nature — lords  of  the  public  domain 
of  thought.  Posterity  shall  never  question  their  titles.  But 
those  whose  fame  lives  only  on  the  indiscreet  opinion  of  un- 
wise men  must  soon  be  as  well  forgotten  as  if  they  had  never 
been.  To  this  great  oblivion  must  most  men  come.  It  is  bet- 
ter, therefore,  that  they  should  soon  make  up  their  minds  to 
this,  well  knowing  that,  as  their  bodies  must  ere  long  be  re- 
solved into  dust  again  and  their  graves  tell  no  tale  of  them, 
so  must  their  names  likewise  be  utterly  forgotten  and  their 
most  cherished  thoughts,  purposes  and  opinions  have  no 
longer  an  individual  being  among  men,  but  be  resolved  and 
incorporated  into  the  universe  of  thought. 


122  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

It  is  better,  therefore,  that  men  should  soon  make  up  their 
minds  to  be  forgotten,  and  look  about  them,  or  within  them, 
for  some  higher  motive  in  what  they  do  than  the  approbation 
of  men  (which  is  Fame),  namely,  their  duty;  that  they  should 
be  constantly  and  quietly  at  work,  each  in  his  sphere,  regard- 
less of  effects,  and  leaving  their  fame  to  take  care  of  itself. 
Difficult  must  this  indeed  be,  in  our  imperfection— impossible, 
perhaps,  to  accomplish  wholly.  Yet  the  resolute,  indomitable 
will  of  man  can  achieve  much — at  times  even  a  victory  over 
itself,  being  persuaded  that  fame  comes  only  when  it  is  de- 
served, and  then  it  is  as  inevitable  as  destiny,  for  it  is  destiny. 
And  after  all,  perhaps  the  greatest  lesson  which  can  be  found 
in  the  lives  of  great  men  is  told  in  a  single  word:  Wait! 
Every  man  must  patiently  abide  his  time.  He  must  wait. 
The  voices  of  the  present  say  "Come!"  But  the  voices  of  the 
past  say  "Wait!"  With  calm  and  solemn  footsteps  the  rising 
tide  bears  against  the  rushing  torrent  upstream  and  pushes 
back  the  hurrying  waters.  With  no  less  calm  and  solemn 
footsteps,  no  less  certainty,  does  a  great  mind  bear  up  against 
public  opinion  and  push  back  its  hurrying  stream.  Therefore 
should  every  man  wait,  should  abide  his  time;  not  in  list- 
less idleness,  not  in  useless  pastime,  not  in  querulous  dejec- 
tion, but  in  constant,  steady,  cheerful  endeavor,  always  will- 
ing and  fulfilling  and  accomplishing  his  task,  that,  when  the 
occasion  comes,  he  may  be  equal  to  the  occasion.  And  if  it 
never  comes,  what  matters  it?  What  matters  it  to  the  world 
whether  you  or  I  or  another  man  did  such  a  deed,  or  wrote 
such  a  book,  so  be  it  the  deed  and  the  book  were  well  done?  It 
is  the  part  of  an  indiscreet  and  troublesome  ambition  to  think 
too  much  about  fame,  about  what  the  world  says  of  us,  to  be 
always  looking  into  the  faces  of  others  for  approval.  Believe 
me,  the  talent  of  success  is  nothing  more  than  doing  what 
you  can  do,  well;  and  doing,  whatever  you  do,  without  a 
thought  of  fame.  If  it  come  at  all  it  will  come  because  it  is 
deserved,  not  because  it  is  sought  after.  And,  moreover,  there 
will  be  no  misgiving,  no  disappointment,  no  hasty,  feverish, 
exhausting  excitement.  ^ 

Oh,  I  have  looked  with  wonder  upon  those  who,  in  sorrow 
and  privation  and  bodily  discomfort  and  sickness,  which  is 
the  shadow  of  death,  have  worked  right  on  to  the  accomplish- 


HENRY   W.   LONGFELLOW.  123 

ment  of  their  great  purposes;  toiling  much,  enduring  much, 
and  they,  with  shattered  nerves  and  sinews  all  unstrung,  have 
laid  themselves  down  in  their  graves  to  sleep  the  sleep  of 
death — and  the  world  talks  of  them  while  they  sleep! 
It  would  seem,  indeed,  as  if  all  their  suffering  had  but  sanc- 
tified them;  as  if  the  death  angel  in  passing  had  touched  them 
with  the  hem  of  his  garment  and  had  made  them  holy;  as  if 
the  hand  of  disease  had  been  stretched  out  over  them  only 
to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  their  souls!  And  as  in 
the  sun's  eclipse  we  can  behold  the  great  stars  shining  in  the 
heavens,  so  in  this  life-eclipse  have  these  men  beheld  the 
lights  of  the  great  eternity  burning  solemnly  and  forever! 


124  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

AMBITION. 

JEROME  K.  JEROME. 
(In   "Idle  Thoughts  of  an  Idle  Fellow.") 

Is  it,  forsooth,  wrong  to  be  ambitious?  Are  the  men  wrong 
who  with  bent  back  and  sweating  brow  cut  the  smooth  road 
over  which  humanity  marches  forward,  who  use  the  talents 
their  Master  has  intrusted  to  them  for  toiling,  while  others 
play? 

Of  course,  they  are  seeking  their  own  reward.  Man  is  not 
given  that  Godlike  unselfishness  that  thinks  only  of  others' 
good.  But  in  working  for  themselves  they  are  working  for 
us  all.  We  are  so  bound  together  that  no  man  can  labor  for 
himself  alone.  Each  blow  he  strikes  in  his  own  behalf  helps 
to  mold  the  universe.  The  stream  in  struggling  onward  turns 
the  mill  wheel;  the  coral  insect  fashioning  its  tiny  cells  joins 
continents;  and  the  ambitious  ,man  building  a  pedestal  for 
himself  leaves  a  monument  to  posterity.  Alexander  and 
Caesar  fought  for  their  own  ends,  but  in  doing  so  they  put 
a  belt  of  civilization  half  around  the  earth.  Stephenson,  to 
win  a  fortune,  invented  the  steam  engine,  and  Shakespeare 
wrote  his  plays  to  keep  a  comfortable  home  for  Mrs.  Shakes- 
peare and  the  children. 

Contented,  unambitious  people  are  all  very  well  in  their 
way.  They  form  a  neat,  useful  background  for  great  por- 
traits to  be  painted  against,  and  they  make  a  respectable  audi- 
ence for  the  active  spirits  to  play  before.  I  have  not  a  word 
to  say  against  them  so  long  as  they  keep  quiet.  But  they 
should  not  go  strutting  about,  crying  out  that  they  are  the 
true  models  for  the  whole  species. 

If  you  are  foolish  enough  to  be  contented,  don't  show  it, 
but  grumble  with  the  rest;  and  if  you  can  do  with  a  little, 
ask  for  a  great  deal.  Because  if  you  don't  you  won't  get  any- 
thing. In  this  world  it  is  necessary  to  adopt  the  principle 
pursued  by  the  plaintiff  in  an  action  for  damages  and  to  de- 
mand ten  times  more  than  you  are  ready  to  accept.  If  you 
can  feel  satisfied  with  a  hundred,  begin  by  insisting  on  a  thou- 
sand; if  you  start  by  suggesting  a  hundred  you  will  only  get 
ten. 


JEROME    K.   JEROME.  125 

What  a  terribly  dull  affair,  too,  life  must  be  for  contented 
people.  They  never  know  the  excitement  of  expectation  nor 
the  stern  delight  of  accomplished  effort,  such  as  stir  the  pulse 
of  the  man  who  has  objects  and  hopes  and  plans.  To  the  am- 
bitious man  life  is  a  brilliant  game — a  game  that  calls  forth 
all  his  tact  and  energy  and  nerve — a  game  to  be  won,  in  the 
long  run,  by  the  quick  eye  and  the  steady  hand,  and  yet  hav- 
ing sufficient  chance  about  its  working  out  to  give  it  all  the 
glorious  zest  of  uncertainty.  He  exults  in  it,  as  the  strong 
swimmer  in  the  heavy  billows,  as  the  athlete  in  the  wrestle, 
as  the  soldier  in  battle.  And  if  he  be  defeated  he  wins  the 
grim  joy  of  fighting;  if  he  loses  the  race  he  at  least  has  had 
a  run.  Better  to  work  and  fail  than  to  sleep  one's  life  away. 


126  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  POWER  OF  IDEAS. 


L.    G.    LONG. 

Men  act  in  bodies;  they  think  in  solitude.  The  world's 
thought  is  the  product  of  a  few  master  minds.  A  new  idea, 
a  new  spark  struck  from  the  brain  forge  of  some  God-sent 
genius,  lights  the  world  for  ages.  Around  each  intellectual 
luminary  floats  a  multitude  of  satellites,  who  drink  in  the 
brilliancy  of  his  pure,  strong  rays,  but  emit  a  feeble  and  lan- 
guid light  which  serves  only  to  deepen  their  own  obscurity  in 
its  original  splendor.  The  world  is  full  of  critics  and  com- 
mentators who  bend  and  warp  and  twist  the  truth  that  al- 
ready exists  to  fit  their  own  environment.  An  age  of  business 
and  barter  is  not  conducive  to  profound  thought;  an  age  of 
books  and  newspapers  is  ill  adapted  to  original  thinking.  Few 
are  they  who  think,  who  create,  who  are  known  to  add  one 
tittle  to  the  storehouse  of  knowledge. 

Only  the  success  of  a  new  idea  renders  its  author  famous. 
What,  then,  do  we  understand  by  the  success  of  an  idea?  An 
idea  succeeds  whenever  it  ceases  to  be  a  pure  mental  abstrac- 
tion, a  mere  child  of  fancy,  and  becomes  a  real  entity,  bodied 
forth  in  some  visible,  tangible  form,  in  some  useful  imple- 
ment, some  work  of  art,  some  beneficent  institution  minister- 
ing to  the  moral,  intellectual  or  physical  needs  of  men.  What 
was  Wesley  without  a  Methodism  or  Knox  without  a  Presby  - 
terianism?  What  was  Milton  without  a  Paradise  Lost  or 
Goethe  without  a  Faust? 

The  Roman  idea  succeeded  when  the  shadow  of  the  Roman 
eagle  enveloped  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  English  idea 
succeeded  when  her  "morning  drumbeat,  keeping  pace  with 
the  sun,  encircled  the  globe  with  one  continuous  and  un- 
broken strain  of  the  martial  airs  of  England."  The  American 
idea  succeeded  when  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  baptized  and  con- 
secrated by  the  blood  of  revolution,  rebaptized  and  reconse- 
crated by  the  blood  of  rebellion,  ceased  to  be  the  symbol  of 
a  loose  and  unstable  federation  of  states,  and  became  the  sa- 
cred emblem  of  a  great  and  glorious  nation. 

Where  do  we  find  ideas  that  will  endure?  Not  in  the  busy 
marts  of  trade;  not  in  the  alcoves  of  dusty  libraries;  not  amid 


L.   G.    LONG.  127 

the  gaud  and  splendor  of  the  gay  salon;  not  in  palaces  rich 
with  the  decorations  and  adornments  of  lavished  fortunes,  but 
in  some  cloistered  retreat,  where  the  soul  of  man  lives  close 
to  the  heart  of  nature,  where  God's  face  is  not  obscured  by 
the  dust  and  smoke  of  cities,  where  some  Plato  muses  in  his 
leafy  grove,  or  where  some  Emerson  meditates  beneath  the 
shade  trees  of  his  Concord  farm — there,  in  such  secluded  spots, 
great  ideas  struggle  into  life. 

Better  were  it  that  Galileo  heard  not  the  voice  of  the  priest, 
but  saw  the  swinging  of  the  chandelier.  Better  for  mankind 
that  Moses  left  the  discontented  Israelites  and  climbed  Mount 
Sinai.  Better  for  humanity  that  Watt  lost  himself  in  his  own 
deep  reflections  or  Edison  sinks  from  sight  in  the  crystal  sea 
of  his  own  great  thoughts.  Well  may  society  afford  to  lose 
the  splendid  presence  of  these  noble  souls,  if  from  the  ashes 
of  their  burnt-out  minds  arise  on  Phoenix  wings  those  sub- 
lime truths  which  serve  as  beacon  lights  to  a  benighted  world, 
a  blessing  to  mankind. 


128  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  MAN 
TO  THE  STATE. 


MARSHALL  HICKS, 

(Mayor  of  San  Antonio,  Texas.) 

(Extract   from   an    address   at   Dallas,   University   of   Texas   Day, 
October  21,  1899.) 

Born  in  a  tempest,  nurtured  in  a  storm,  and  grown  strong 
in  the  struggle  of  more  than  half  a  century,  Texas  stands  to- 
day with  her  loins  girded,  her  staff  in  hand  and  her  face  to- 
ward the  future,  ready  to  go  forward  into  the  dawn  of  a  new 
and  larger  day.  As  we  stand  to-day  in  this  splendid  city, 
amidst  its  evidences  of  wealth  and  culture,  our  minds  and 
hearts  turn  in  veneration  to  those  who  made  our  state  de- 
velopment possible;  to  that  stalwart  body  of  men  whose  cour- 
age and  self-sacrifice,  whose  faith  and  foresight  wrote  large 
the  destiny  of  the  little  republic;  and  to  those  men  of  later 
day  whose  broad  culture  and  mature  wisdom,  whose  patient 
industry  and  untiring  devotion  to  principle  placed  the  tot- 
tering republic  upon  a  foundation  which  is  immovable,  and 
touched  the  rough  structure  of  the  new-made  State  into  lines 
of  symmetry  and  beauty.  In  a  hostile  country,  exposed  to 
dangers  from  without  and  within,  the  prey  of  the  savage  and 
the  dupe  of  governmental  deception,  they  kept  the  faith  which 
they  had  pledged  to  a  faithless  sovereign  until  faith  in  the 
government  was  folly.  Then  the  indomitable  courage  and 
unconquerable  will  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  asserted  themselves, 
threw  off  the  yoke  of  a  government  which  had  ceased  to  pro- 
tect, and  erected  for  themselves  a  republic  of  their  own. 

Happy  was  it  for  us  that  the  men  whose  spirits  controlled 
in  the  march  of  those  stirring  events  were  university  men; 
men  of  broad  culture,  deep  learning,  mature  wisdom,  and 
rich  experience,  with  an  earnest  devotion  to  the  principles 
of  justice  and  right.  One  writer  says  that  the  proportion  of 
college  bred  men  among  those  pioneers  was  greater  than 
among  the  people  of  a  much  later  day  or  even  of  to-day.  To 
that  fact  we  are  indebted  for  the  broad  lines  of  our  State 
structure,  and  especially  our  invaluable  system  of  public 
schools  culminating  at  last  in  our  State  University. 


MARSHALL    HICKS.  129 

This  age  is  a  practical  one,  and  the  commercial  spirit  is 
abroad  in  the  land.  This  spirit  measures  men  by  their  pos- 
sessions. Its  vision  is  direct  and  concentrated.  It  does  not 
view  the  distant  scene.  It  is  narrow,  but  forceful.  Culture 
broadens  vision  and  gives  a  correct  idea  of  value.  Therefore, 
in  its  estimate  some  things  diminish  in  value.  They  are 
counted  not  worth  the  strife  necessary  to  possess  them,  and 
their  possession  may  be  dangerous.  Culture  is  rational  and 
conservative,  but  not  cowardly.  It  moves  cautiously,  but 
surely.  The  history  of  the  race  shows  that  university  men 
have  not  only  been  dreamers,  but  actors  in  the  drama  of  life. 
Let  me  say  that  dreamers  have  made  this  world  habitable. 
There  was  a  time  when  things  we  count  most  common  now 
in  life  were  but  a  dream.  This  splendid  land  of  ours  and  all 
it  holds  for  the  race  was  but  a  dream  of  the  inspired  sailor 
of  Genoa,  but  the  dreamer  saw  the  vision  and  placing  his 
hand  upon  the  helm,  turned  the  prow  of  his  frail  ship  to- 
wards the  west  and  held  it  there  until  he  saw  a  new  world 
rise  before  him  from  the  bosom  of  the  deep.  From  the  brain 
of  that  silent  thinker,  who  begged  his  way  from  court  to 
court,  leaped  a  new  continent,  whereon  a  sturdy  people,  catch- 
ing up  the  smoldering  torch  of  human  freedom,  was  destined 
to  set  a  beacon  upon  the  hil]s  of  New  England  and  Virginia 
to  light  the  peoples  of  the  world  into  liberty  and  life. 

The  race  is  waiting  day  after  day  for  men  with  brain 
and  heart,  with  courage  and  conscience,  for  some  new  Colum- 
bus who  has  the  wisdom,  the  patience  and  the  courage  to 
emancipate  his  people  into  larger  life.  There  are  laws  of  life 
still  buried  in  the  brain  waiting  for  some  savior  of  the  peo- 
ple, with  lancet  and  lens  to  call  them  into  life  by  the  self- 
same words,  "I  say  unto  thee  arise."  There  are  principles  of 
justice  yet  unrecognized,  economic  and  industrial  policies  un- 
accepted, waiting  for  some  one  wise  enough  and  brave  enough 
to  introduce  them  into  the  practical  life  of  the  people.  In 
the  field  of  physics,  of  chemistry,  of  medicine,  of  surgery, 
there  are  laws  whose  discovery  will  liberate  and  bless  the 
race,  while  in  the  broad  field  of  human  life,  society  is  waiting 
for  the  practical  application  of  those  nobler  ideas  of  human 
conduct  to  all  the  duties  and  relations  of  life.  The  life  of  the 


130  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

State  and  of  the  race  must  be  broadened  and  deepened,  its 
liberties  must  be  larger  and  its  ideals  purer  and  higher. 

To  the  accomplishment  of  these  things,  I  would  summon 
you.     The  call  is  to  the  cultured,  broad-minded,  high-souled 
sons  and  daughters  of  our  alma  mater.    That  call  comes  not 
from  me,  but  from  those  heroes  of  Texas  who  saw  the  visions 
and  dreamed  the  dreams  in  the  days  of  the  past.     As  their 
mouthpiece,  I  would  give  their  message  in  the  vigorous  words 
of  the  gifted  Kipling  to  his  own  and  our  kindred  people: 
"Go  to  your  work  and  be  strong,  halting  not  in  your  ways, 
Baulking  the  end  half  won  for  an  instant  dole  of  praise. 
Stand  to  your  work  and  be  wise — certain  of  sword  and  pen, 
Who  are  neither  children  nor  gods,  but  men  in  a  world  of 
men." 


DAVID   J.   BREWER.  131 

COMBINATION  OF  CAPITAL  AND  CONSOLIDATION 
OF  LABOR. 


JUSTICE  DAVID  J.   BREWER. 

The  most  noticeable  social  fact  of  to-day  is  that  of  the  com- 
bination of  capital  and  the  organization  of  labor.  Whatever 
may  be  the  causes,  and  whatever  may  be  the  results,  good  or 
bad,  the  fact  is  beyond  dispute  that  the  trend  of  the  two 
great  industrial  forces  of  capital  and  labor  is  along  the  line 
of  consolidation  and  co-operation.  I  am  not  here  to  decry 
this  tendency.  I  realize  full  well  that  only  through  this 
movement  are  the  great  material  achievements  of  the  day 
possible;  but  one  thing  is  clear,  and  that  is  that  the  penalty 
which  the  nation  pays  for  all  its  benefits  is  the  growing 
disposition  to  sacrifice  the  individual  to  the  mass,  to  make 
the  liberty  of  the  one  something  which  may  be  ruthlessly 
trampled  into  the  dust,  because  of  some  supposed  benefit  to 
the  many. 

A  capital  combine  may,  as  it  is  claimed,  produce  better, 
cheaper  and  more  satisfactory  results  in  manufacture,  trans- 
portation, and  general  business;  but  too  often  the  combine 
is  not  content  with  the  voluntary  co-operation  of  such  as 
choose  to  join.  It  grasps  at  monopoly,  and  seeks  to  crush  out 
all  competition.  If  any  individual  prefers  his  independent 
business,  however  small,  and  refuses  to  join  the  combine,  it 
proceeds  to  assail  that  business.  With  its  accumulation  of 
wealth  it  can  afford  for  a  while  to  so  largely  undersell  as  to 
speedily  destroy  it.  It  thus  crushes  or  swallows  the  in- 
dividual, and  he  is  assaulted  as  though  he  were  an  outlaw. 

So  it  is  with  the  organizations  of  labor;  the  leaders  order 
a  strike;  the  organization  throws  down  its  tools  and  ceases 
to  work.  No  individual  member  dare  say:  "I  have  a  family 
to  support,  I  prefer  to  work,"  but  is  forced  to  go  with  the 
general  body.  Not  content  with  this,  the  organization  too 
often  attempts  by  force  to  keep  away  other  laborers.  It 
stands  with  its  accumulated  power  of  numbers,  not  merely 
to  coerce  its  individual  members,  but  also  to  threaten  any 
outsiders  who  seek  to  take  their  places.  Where  is  the  in- 
dividual laborer  who  dares  assert  his  liberty  and  act  as  he 


132  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

pleases  in  the  matter  of  work;  where  is  the  individual  con- 
tractor or  employer  who  can  carry  on  his  business  as  he 
thinks  best? 

The  business  men  are  becoming  slaves  of  the  combine; 
the  laborers  of  the  trades'  union.  Through  the  land  the  idea 
is  growing  that  the  individual  is  nothing  and  that  the  or- 
ganization is  everything;  and  we  have  the  fancy  sketch  of 
the  dreamer  of  a  supposed  ideal  state,  in  which  the  individual 
has  no  choice  of  lot  or  toil,  but  is  moved  about  according  to 
the  supposed  superior  wisdom  of  the  organized  mass;  and 
this,  we  are  told,  is  the  liberty  for  which  the  ages  have  toiled, 
and  for  which  human  blood  has  crimsoned  the  earth. 


DANIEL   W.  VOOKHEES.  133 


OVER-PROTECTED  FARMERS. 

DANIEL,   W.   VOORHEES. 

There  is  trouble  at  this  time  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
the  farmers  of  this  country.  There  is  a  deep,  strong  current 
of  discontent,  anxiety,  and  alarm  prevailing  in  all  the  farm- 
ing regions  of  the  United  States,  and  that  current  is  growing 
swifter,  stronger,  and  more  threatening  every  hour.  The 
spirit  of  unrest,  irritation,  and  reproach  is  abroad  amongst 
the  tillers  of  the  soil  to  an  extent  never  before  known  in 
American  history.  The  millions  who  plow  and  sow  and  reap 
are  being  moved  by  a  mighty  and  concerted  impulse  to  in- 
quire into  the  causes  which  have  led  to  their  present  calami- 
tous and  oppressed  condition. 

The  main  answer  is  easy  and  obvious;  it  is  to  be  found  on 
the  very  surface  of  our  affairs.  Living  under  a  plutocracy,  the 
farmer  does  not  own  his  full  time  and  labor;  he  owns  a  part, 
but  not  all.  He  needs  all  the  six  days  of  the  week  in  which 
to  work  for  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children;  but  under 
the  iniquitous  system  by  which  the  tariff  taxes  him  upon 
every  necessary  of  life,  he  is  compelled  to  devote  the  proceeds 
of  at  least  two  days  out  of  the  six  to  the  protection  and  en- 
richment of  the  robber  barons.  One-third  of  his  time  the 
American  farmer  is  a  toiling  serf  for  the  payment,  not  of 
revenue  to  his  government,  but  of  naked  tribute  to  those  who 
are  protected  in  charging  him  25  to  100  per  cent,  more  than 
it  is  worth  on  every  article  his  wants  compel  him  to  buy. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  name  applied  to  a  system  of 
government  by  virtue  of  which  one  class  owns  the  labor  of 
another  class;  and  it  is  a  moderate  and  reasonable  statement 
to  make  that  the  American  laborer,  and  more  especially  the 
farm  laborer,  is  already  one-third  slave  by  law,  with  the 
clutch,  greed,  and  power  of  his  master,  the  plutocracy,  increas- 
ing the  degree  and  the  degradation  of  his  servitude  every  hour. 
The  relations  of  the  laboring  classes  to  the  feudal  barons  of 
Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  were  exactly  the  same  in 
principle  as  those  now  existing  between  the  laboring  classes 
of  the  United  States  and  the  favored  few,  for  whom  they  are 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water. 


134  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Cedric,  the  Saxon,  had  no  surer  hold  on  the  services  of 
Gurth,  the  swineherd,  than  the  lords  of  the  money  power 
have  at  this  time  on  the  hard  earnings  of  'American  industry. 
Are  we  to  be  blind  to  the  lessons  of  history?  There  is  al- 
ways a  point  in  the  oppression  and  enslavement  of  labor 
where  safety  ceases  and  danger  begins.  A  tax  known  as 
corvee  in  France,  requiring  and  enforcing  gratuitous  labors 
on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  district  for  their  lord  of 
the  manor,  was  one  of  the  sore  grievances  which  led  to  the 
French  revolution. 

Well  might  Mirabeau  denounce  the  corvee  tax  as  "the  most 
cruel  of  all  servitudes,"  and  yet  the  French  peasantry  of  that 
period  were  no  more  required  to  render  gratuitous  services  to 
the  French  aristocracy  than  are  the  grain-growers  and  stock- 
raisers  of  the  United  States  to-day  to  render  gratuitous  mil- 
lions and  hundreds  of  millions  annually  to  the  coffers  of 
those  whom  a  high  protective  tariff  has  made  their  lords 
and  masters.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  American 
laborer  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  be  any 
more  patient  of  a  corvee  tax  on  his  time  and  his  industry, 
than  was  the  down-trodden  French  peasant  of  a  hundred 
years  ago. 


THE   PROFESSIONAL  SPOILSMAN.  135 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  SPOILSMAN. 

(Extract  from  an  editorial  in   the  Indianapolis   News,  December 

22,  1897.) 

The  spoils  system  is  a  cunning  device  of  a  class  that  would 
retain  to  itself  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  One 
might  as  well  argue,  from  the  chronic  jurymen  who  hang 
around  court-house's,  that  the  people  are  interested  in  being 
drawn  on  juries,  as  to  argue  from  the  clamor  of  spoilsmen 
that  it  is  the  people  who  want  the  offices.  The  people — the 
great  mass  of  the  seventy  millions  of  this  country — do  not 
want  offices,  and  they  have  no  time  for  them.  They  are  pur- 
suing life,  liberty  and  happiness  in  their  own  way.  But  there' 
is  a  little  coterie  of  men  in  every  city,  in  every  town,  in  every 
hamlet  almost,  who  hang  around  the  post  office,  the  county 
court-house,  or  whatever  center  of  public  activity,  who  seek 
to  make  of  politics  the  means  of  living.  These  folk  are  al- 
ways to  the  front.  They  are  out  on  the  curb-stone,  making  a 
noise.  Merely  passing  along  the  street,  you  might  think  that 
the  whole  town  were  talking,  whereas  the  whole  town  is  in 
shops  and  stores  and  factories,  engaged  in  the  business  of 
life,  while  a  mere  handful  of  people  are  in  the  highways  and 
byways,  making  a  noise. 

Put  this  question  to  the  test,  let  a  vote  be  taken,  and  the 
spoilsmen  would  see  that  they  would  not  amount  to  a  chip 
on  the  tide,  to  a  leaf  in  the  gale.  They  are  simply  as  nothing, 
either  in  numbers  or  influence,  compared  to  the  great  num- 
ber of  people  who  are  attending  to  the  business  of  life,  and 
who  want  their  public  affairs  administered  as  they  adminis- 
ter their  private  affairs — honestly,  thoroughly,  efficiently  and 
because  of  fitness  and  not  favoritism.  We  challenge  the 
spoilsmen  to  any  test  they  want  to  make.  They  are  not 
merely  not  a  majority  of  the  people,  they  are  an  insignificant 
moiety  of  the  minority. 

This  pressure  for  public  support  is  an  instance  of  an  in- 
verted view  of  the  function  of  government  which  survives 
among  us,  and  which,  if  it  is  to  be  encouraged  by  narrowing 
the  scope  of  the  merit  system,  will  place  a  tremendous  strain 
upon  Republican  institutions  at  a  time  when  they  are  already 


136  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER, 

laden  with  a  hundred  burdens.  The  merit  system  is  in  the 
interest  of  the  whole  people;  for,  unlike  the  spoils  system,  it 
cannot  be  used  by  a  faction  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  people. 
Civil  service  reform  has  never  been  a  party  question  in  the 
nation,  for  it  stands  for  the  interest  of  Republican,  Demo- 
crat, Populist,  Prohibitionist  and  Independent.  It  is  a  pro- 
test against  playing  the  game  of  politics  with  loaded  dice, 
furnished  by  the  people  against  themselves. 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT.  137 

INDIVIDUAL  AND  NATIONAL  CHARACTER. 


THEODORE     ROOSEVELT. 
(From  an  address  delivered  at  Bath,  N.   Y.,  February  9,  18&9.) 

As  American  citizens,  all  of  us  stand  or  fall  together.  No 
deed  of  corruption  or  infamy  is  performed  in  public  or  pri- 
vate life,  but  all  of  us  are  so  much  the  poorer.  I  wish  we 
could  recognize  even  more  clearly  than  we  do,  that  every  act 
of  municipal  or  State  or  national  misgovernment,  that  every 
conspicuous  act  of  dishonesty,  takes  away  by  just  so  much 
from  that  American  character  in  which  we  have  the  right  to 
take  pride;  and  that  so,  on  the  other  hand,  every  act  of  mili- 
tary or  civic  virtue,  every  deed  of  courage  of  soldiers,  of  good 
conduct  of  our  men  in  public  affairs,  reflects  honor  upon  our 
people  as  a  whole.  It  is  important  that  we  shall  have  mate- 
rial well-being;  it  is  important  that  we  should  have  material 
prosperity;  it  is  more  important  that  we  shall  have  that  upon 
which  ultimately,  material  well  being  must  rest,  that  we 
shall  have  the  moral  well  being,  that  we  shall  have  that 
moral  lift  toward  things  higher,  for  the  lack  of  which  noth- 
ing else  can  atone,  either  in  the  life  of  a  nation  or  in  the  life 
of  an  individual. 

We  are  ending  this  century;  we  are  about  to  enter 
upon  another,  increasing  the  range  of  our  responsibili- 
ties. If  we  are  indeed  the  nation  we  claim  to  be,  that  will 
not  make  us  shrink  from  the  future.  If  we  are,  indeed,  as  we 
claim  to  be,  the  men  who  stand  foremost  in  the  ranks  to-day, 
the  nation  that  is  entitled  to  take  the  lead  in  shaping  the 
progress  of  the  world,  we  will  not  shrink  from  the  duty  that 
is  before  us.  No  great  victory  was  ever  won  save  by  those 
who  were  willing  to  take  some  risk  in  winning  it,  and  this 
applies  not  only  to  our  military  life,  but  to  our  civil  life. 
We  cannot  ultimately  uphold  the  honor  of  the  nation  abroad, 
if  we  do  not  uphold  the  cause  of  civic  honesty  at  home. 


138  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ANCESTRAL  IDEALS. 

HENRY  JACKSON  VAN  DYKE. 

(Extract   from    a   speech    delivered  )at   the   annual    dinner   of   the 
New  England  Society  of  Philadelphia,  December  22,  1898.) 

America  has  followed  her  ancestral  ideal  of  republican  gov- 
ernment with  marvelous  fidelity,  and  still  more  marvelous 
success.  Without  militarism  she  has  made  her  power  felt 
around  the  globe.  Without  colonies  she  has  outstripped  all 
colonial  empires  in  the  growth  of  her  export  trade.  Without 
conquering  vessels  or  annexing  tributaries  she  has  expanded 
her  population  from  three  million  to  seventy-five  million, 
and  welcomed  a  score  of  races  to  her  capacious  bosom,  not  to 
subjugate  them,  but  to  transform  them  into  Americans.  Glory 
to  the  ideal  of  a  new  nation,  "conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal!" 
Glory  has  come  to  it  for  a  hundred  years.  Glory  still  waits 
for  it.  It  is  to-day  the  most  potent  and  prosperous  ideal  in 
the  whole  world.  All  that  this  country  needs  is  to  be  true  to 
her  own  ideal,  and  so  to  lead  mankind.  But  this  last  ideal 
which  reaches  forward  into  the  long  future — the  ideal  of 
national  glory  and  grandeur — is  it  indeed  ancestral?  Did  the 
fathers  cherish  it  and  dream  of  it? 

There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  their  eyes  were  not  opened 
to  behold  this  vision.  We  are  asked  to  believe  that  they 
were  short-sighted  in  regard  to  the  greatness  of  America; 
and  therefore  their  counsels  are  inapplicable  to  the  days  of 
our  prosperity.  I  do  not  believe  it.  The  representative  of 
Spain  at  Paris  in  1783,  Count  Arondo,  said:  "This  Federal 
Republic  is  born  a  pigmy.  The  day  will  come  when  it  will 
be  a  giant,  a  Colossus,  formidable  even  in  these  countries. 
Liberty  of  conscience,  the  facility  for  establishing  a  new 
population  on  immense  lands,  as  well  as  the  advantages  of  a 
new  government,  will  draw  artisans  and  farmers  even  from 
the  great  nations."  That  was  a  vision  of  jealousy  and  fear. 
Do  you  believe  that  the  eyes  of  our  ancestors  were  too  blind 
to  behold  that  vision  in  joy  and  hope?  Nay,  they  saw  it,  and 
they  saw  also  how  it  was  to  be  obtained.  Not  on  the  old 
plan  of  the  Roman  empire,  annexation  without  incorporation, 
but  on  the  new  plan  of  the  American  Republic — liberation, 


HENRY   JACKSON   VAN   DYKE.  139 

population,  education,  assimilation.  Turn  back  to  the  letter 
which  Washington  wrote  to  the  Earl  of  Buchow: 

"It  is  my  sincere  wish  that  United  America  shall  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  political  intrigues  or  the  squabbles  of  Eu- 
ropean nations.  To  administer  justice,  and  to  receive  it  from 
every  power  with  whom  they  are  connected  will,  I  hope,  be 
found  the  most  prominent  feature  of  the  administration  of 
this  country,  and  I  flatter  myself  that  nothing  short  of  im- 
perious necessity  can  ever  occasion  a  breach  with  any  of 
them. 

"Under  such  a  system,  if  we  are  allowed  to  pursue  it,  the 
wealth  of  these  United  States,  the  agriculture  and  the  me- 
chanic arts  and  its  population  will  increase  with  such  a  de- 
gree of  rapidity  as  to  baffle  all  calculations,  and  must  sur- 
pass any  idea  your  Lordship  can  hitherto  have  entertained." 

Turn  back  to  those  noble  words  of  the  farewell  address,  in 
which  the  Father  of  Our  Country  said:  "It  will  be  worthy  of 
a  free,  enlightened,  and,  at  no  distant  period,  a  great  nation, 
to  give  to  mankind  the  magnanimous  and  too  novel  example 
of  a  people  guided  by  an  exalted  justice  and  benevolence." 
This  is  our  ancestral  ideal  of  national  glory  and  grandeur. 
Not  military  conquest,  but  worldwide  influence.  Not  colonies 
in  both  hemispheres,  but  friends,  admirers,  and  imitators 
around  the  globe. 

These  are  the  ancestral  ideals  that  have  been  the 
strength  and  prosperity  of  Americans  during  the  nineteenth 
century.  Will  they  endure  through  the  twentieth  century? 
Pray  God  they  may.  But  who  can  tell?  Men  often  forget  and 
sometimes  change  their  ideals.  But  this  we  know:  If  the 
ideal  of  just  government,  as  based  on  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned, is  modified;  if  the  ideal  of  national  grandeur,  as  con- 
sisting in  enlightenment,  rather  than  in  conquest,  is  obscured, 
then  our  last  hope  will  be  in  the  survival  of  the  third  ideal — 
American  manhood.  Then,  if  ever,  we  shall  need  these  an- 
cestral societies,  not  to  search  out  vain  geneologies,  but  to 
remind  us  of  the  virtues  of  our  forefathers.  Then,  if  ever,  we 
shall  need  men  to  imitate  their  integrity,  their  fearlessness, 
their  unselfish  devotion  to  the  commonwealth.  And,  while 
we  have  such  men,  I,  for  one,  shall  never  despair  of  the  salva- 
tion of  the  Republic. 


140  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  OLD  CONSTITUTION. 


(From  The  Nation,  January,  1899.) 

During  the  whole  of  the  century  which  is  just  expiring,  the 
reverence  of  Americans  for  their  Federal  constitution,  has 
been  the  marvel  of  publicists.  Its  success,  in  fact,  in  secur- 
ing the  attachment  of  the  American  people,  has,  as  is  well 
known,  much  surpassed  the  expectations  of  its  framers.  It 
has  long  been  held  up  to  admiration  as  the  crowning  proof 
of  the  political  capacity  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  The  won- 
der has  been  too,  not  solely  that  the  American  people  devised 
it,  but  that  they  obeyed  it,  and  lived  quietly  under  it.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  some  at  least  of  the  South  American  re- 
publics have  constitutions  which  seem  as  good  as  ours  on 
paper,  but  the  people  do  not  respect  them  in  practice.  They 
revolt  every  now  and  then,  when  the  constitution  stands  in 
the  way  of  some  ambitious  politician.  In  fact,  ever  since 
Tocqueville  began  to  write  about  the  American  republic 
in  the  thirties,  our  adoration  of  it  has  puzzled  Europeans. 
A  great  many  Englishmen  regarded  it  as  a  kind  of  supersti- 
tion. At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  one  English  writer 
of  eminence  explained  that  one  of  our  great  difficulties  was 
"that  we  had  a  false  bottom  to  our  political  thought" — 
namely,  the  constitution.  For  seventy  years  it  furnished  pro- 
tection to  an  institution  which  disgraced  us  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  and  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  the  most  intelli- 
gent portion  of  our  own  community.  It  was  worshipped  be- 
cause it  furnished  for  the  first  time  in  history  an  effective 
and  enduring  federal  bond. 

After  the  civil  war  we  had  still  enough  reverence  for  the 
constitution  not  to  take  any  step  which  seemed  seriously  to 
violate  it.  We  even  took  the  trouble  to  make  slavery  uncon- 
stitutional after  it  had  been  abolished  by  military  force. 
Artemus  Ward's  joke  that  "the  earth  revolves  on  her  own 
axle-tree,  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States," 
was  hardly  an  exaggerated  expression  of  the  popular  feeling 
regarding  it. 

The  first  real  breach  in  it  was  made  by  the  invention  of  the 
"war  power"  to  enable  President  Lincoln  to  abolish  slavery. 


THE   OLD   CONSTITUTION.  141 

No  one  would  now  say  that  this  was  not  at  that  time  neces- 
sary, but  it  made  it  possible  for  any  president  to  suspend  the 
constitution  by  getting  up  a  war,  that  is,  by  calling  into  ex- 
istence and  activity  the  most  anti-social  and  anti-legal  and 
most  judgment-disturbing  of  all  the  influences  by  which 
men  are  swayed.  There  is  no  way  for  making  a  president 
account  for  what  he  does  in  time  of  war,  except  by  very  un- 
certain processes  which  cannot  be  brought  into  play  until 
long  after  the  event.  President  McKinley,  for  instance,  has 
been  exercising  powers  during  the  last  few  months  which 
have  been  bringing  the  constitution  more  and  more  into 
contempt,  and  to  which  some  portion  of  the  nation  disputes 
his  right,  and  there  is  practically  no  way  of  checking  him. 
What  his  career  has  most  distinctly  brought  to  our  notice  is 
the  rapidity  with  which  a  man,  elected  for  a  purpose  to  which 
he  pays  no  attention,  may  turn  opinion  away  from  the  con- 
stitution, and  its  necessities,  and  its  values.  If  any  one  had 
predicted,  even  ten  years  ago,  that  such  a  person,  by  the  aid 
of  (for  us)  a  trifling  war,  could,  in  so  short  a  time,  not  only 
make  the  constitution  seem  of  small  consequence,  but  bring 
the  great  men  of  our  heroic  age  into  a  sort  of  discredit,  so 
that  any  "space  writer"  could  pooh-pooh  George  Washington 
— who  would  have  believed  him? 

McKinley,  whom  we  are  so  glibly  asked  to  accept  as  a 
better  adviser  than  Washington,  leaves  us  to  face  the  mis- 
chief he  has  worked — the  destruction  of  all  sense  of  the 
value  of  the  constitution  as  a  defense  of  property  and  order, 
a  great  diminution  of  the  sense  of  its  value  in  placing  bounds 
to  any  possible  excess  of  universal  suffrage.  How  long  this 
madness  will  last,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  as  long  as  it 
lasts,  those  are  foolish,  who,  with  the  example  of  Croker 
before  them,  suppose  that  the  Altgelds  and  Tanners  and 
Debses  and  Bryans  will  not  be  delighted  to  find  that,  after 
a  century's  trial  of  constitutional  government,  we  have  at 
last  been  willing  to  take  off  of  democracy  the  only  bridle  it 
has  ever  borne  with  patiently. 


142  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


INDIVIDUALISM  VS.  CENTRALIZATION. 

HON.    DUDLEY    G.    WOOTEN. 

(Extract  from  an  address  delivered  at  the  University  of  Texas, 
June   19,   1893.) 

In  peace  and  war,  in  business  and  pleasure,  in  religion  and 
politics,  the  distinguishing  virtue  and  indispensable  attribute 
of  public  and  private  morality,  to  which  every  Anglo-Saxon 
renders  unqualified  homage  and  renown,  are  those  of  loyalty 
to  trust  and  devotion  to  duty. 

Transmitted  to  this  Western  World,  these  same  traits  of 
personal  obligation,  private  honor,  individual  responsibility 
and  inalienable  duty  are  a  necessary  and  vital  part  of  our 
social  and  political  inheritance.  Strike  down  the  sense  of 
direct  moral  obligation,  obliterate  the  salutary  restraints  of 
private  and  personal  honor,  and  you  eliminate  the  most 
valuable  and  vigorous  factor  in  the  manhood,  independence 
and  potential  greatness  of  American  society. 

It  should  be  a  source  of  never-failing  pride  and  satisfac- 
tion to  us  to  reflect  that,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  Union 
of  states,  those  who  have  heretofore  most  nearly  preserved 
in  their  purity  and  practiced  in  their  integrity  the  true  and 
undefined  laws  of  political,  social  and  individual  morality 
and  duty,  were  the  citizens  of  that  vanished  time  and  fast- 
vanishing  race — the  sons  of  the  Old  South.  In  the  simple 
and  sedate  atmosphere  of  those  olden  days,  public  virtue  and 
private  integrity,  business  trust  and  personal  honor,  were  in- 
separable; individual  manhood  and  political  courage  were 
convertible  terms;  social  purity  and  a  decorous  regard  for  the 
pious  convictions  and  sacred  teachings  of  religion  were  ac- 
counted the  attributes  of  true  gentility,  and  a  uniform  cour- 
tesy, candor,  fidelity  and  valor  were  the  indispensable  re- 
quirements of  social  recognition  and  public  distinction.  To 
those  who  vaunt  the  superior  excellencies  and  practical  ad- 
vantages of  the  new  South,  with  its  increasing  wealth  and 
rapid  conversion  to  the  ideas  of  corporate  control  and  com- 
bined industry,  it  would  be  both  prudent  and  profitable  to 
study  the  characteristics  of  that  older  civilization  whose  soft 
and  tender  charm,  fading  with  the  receding  years,  is  yet  "like 


DUDLEY   G.    WOOTEN.  143 

the  sound  of  distant  music,  mournful  though  pleas'ng  to  the 
soul."  It  was  an  age  of  gentle  manners,  but  unyielding  cour- 
age; an  era  of  ceremonious  intercourse,  but  of  unbroken 
promises  and  inviolable  faith.  Under  the  influence  of  more 
modern  conceptions  of  co-operative  enterprise  and  incorpo- 
rated industry  those  pristine  virtues  of  personal  responsibility 
and  heroic  devotion  to  duty  are  fast  becoming  unknown 
quantities  in  the  social,  business  and  political  relations  of 
our  people. 

And  at  all  these  points  of  social  growth  and  political  fric- 
tion we  find  the  same  struggle  to  maintain  and  to  establish 
the  ancient  ideals  of  individualism  and  personal  freedom 
against  the  encroachments  of  concentrated  wealth,  peculiar 
prerogative  and  incorporated  privilege. 

If  now  or  hereafter  among  the  representative  nations  of 
Aryan  culture  and  progress,  the  innate  and  organic  principles 
that  form  the  inherited  genius  and  fundamental  law  of  the 
race  development  are  ignored  and  violated — if  individualism 
succumbs  to  centralization,  and  natural  manhood  is  usurped 
by  artificial  citizenship,  then  in  vain  need  we  strive  to  pre- 
serve the  purity  and  perpetuate  the  blessings  of  free  demo- 
cratic institutions,  either  here  in  their  chosen  abode  or  else- 
where among  the  struggling  nations  of  the  earth. 

But  if  we  shall  adhere  to  the  ideals  of  our  race  as  they 
have  been  developed  through  the  ages,  if  we  shall  practice 
and  enforce  obedience  to  the  primal  laws  of  our  social  and 
political  health  as  they  have  been  demonstrated  by  centuries 
of  cumulative  evolution  and  experience,  if  we  are  true  to 
our  faith  and  firm  in  our  courage,  then  the  ultimate  freedom 
and  union  of  humanity  are  not  a  dreaming  phantasy  of  polit- 
ical theorists,  but,  "rising  on  a  wind  of  prophecy,"  we  may 
even  indulge  the  Apocalyptic  vision  of  the  poet: 
"When  the  war  drums  throb  no  longer,  and  the  battle  flags 
are  furled, — 

In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world; 

There  the  common  sense  of  most  shall  hold  a  fretful  realm 
in  awe. 

And  the  peaceful  earth  shall  slumber,  lapt  in  universal  law." 


144  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

OUR  GOVERNMENT'S  REAL  PERIL. 


DR.    LYMAN    ABBOTT. 
(From    The    Outlook   of    September   1,    1900.) 

The  fact  of  expansion  and  the  policy  of  expansion  are  reali- 
ties which  are  clear  to  every  intelligent  American;  but  the 
thing  called  Imperialism,  about  which  so  much  is  being  said 
at  present,  is  a  thing  of  the  imagination;  it  has  no  reality, 
and  for  that  reason  it  has  failed  to  make  any  wide  impression 
on  the  American  people.  Whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  the 
American  people,  they  have  an  instinct  for  fact,  and  while 
they  may  be  often  deluded,  and  sometimes  for  considerable 
periods  of  time,  they  are  rarely  perplexed  by  specters.  The 
question  whether  or  not  the  army  shall  be  increased  to  one 
hundred  thousand  men  is  debatable;  there  are  good  reasons 
to  be  urged  against  it;  but  to  declare  that  the  liberties  of 
the  country  are  to  be  endangered  by  such  an  increase  is  to 
take  the  discussion  out  of  the  realm  of  fact  into  that  of  pure 
fancy.  If  the  liberties  of  this  country,  after  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  of  national  existence,  and  the  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  of  English  political  education,  are  to  be  endan- 
gered by  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  it  is  time  that 
another  basis  were  put  under  those  liberties.  The  real  danger 
in  this  country  is  not  from  a  conception  of  the  Nation  which 
spells  it  with  a  capital  N,  nor  from  a  strong  government 
either  in  the  State  capitals  or  at  Washington;  the  real  danger 
is  from  weakness  of  government.  Lawlessness  has  been  one 
of  the  chief  vices  of  American  life  from  the  earliest  times 
in  our  history.  It  was  the  prevalence  of  lawlessness  and  the 
extent  of  the  lawless  classes  in  the  country  that  made  Ham- 
ilton the  advocate  of  a  strong  central  government.  It  is  the 
prevalence  of  lawlessness  that,  more  than  anything  else  ex- 
cept the  development  of  rings  and  bosses,  has  misinterpreted 
American  public  life  and  the  American  spirit  to  the  peoples 
of  Europe.  A  country  in  which  the  recent  riots  in  New  Or- 
leans and  New  York,  the  forcible  control  of  the  political 
campaign  by  armed  men  in  North  Carolina,  the  destruction 
of  public  buildings  by  a  mob  in  Akron,  Ohio,  last  week,  are 
possible,  is  in  far  greater  danger  from  the  mob  than  it  is 


DR.    LYMAN   ABBOTT.  145 

from  the  army  or  the  executive.  The  peril  to  liberty  in  this 
country  is  real,  but  it  does  not  come  from  so-called  Imperial- 
ism;- it  comes  from  the  fear  of  the  mob  and  the  weakness  of 
executive  officers  in  the  presence  of  the  mob.  Among  all  the 
tyrants,  none  is  more  brutal  than  the  mob;  and  in  this  coun- 
try the  mob,  even  in  old  communities,  is  often,  for  consider- 
able periods  of  time,  the  real  ruler. 

The  safeguards  needed  in  this  country  are  not  safeguards 
against  too  much  government,  but  against  lawlessness.  We 
need  sheriffs,  mayors,  governors,  and  presidents  who  are  not 
afraid  of  citizens  who  have  put  them  into  office  when  those 
citizens  are  organized  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  the  law 
and  committing  deeds  of  violence.  We  need  men  who  will 
not  hesitate  to  put  down  a  mob  with  a  strong  hand;  men 
whose  first  concern  it  is,  with  absolute  indifference  to  friend 
or  foe,  to  maintain  in  New  Orleans,  North  Carolina,  New 
York,  Akron,  and  St.  Louis,  that  order  the  preservation  of 
which  is  the  first  instinct  of  men  of  English  blood  and  Eng- 
lish political  training.  Nothing  has  brought  greater  reproach 
on  American  institutions  than  the  frequent  outbreaks  of  law- 
lessness in  many  parts  of  the  country  which  have  sometimes 
been  met,  as  they  ought  always  to  be  met,  with  prompt  and 
stern  upholding  of  the  law  by  adequate  means,  but  more 
often  by  evasion,  delay,  indecision,  and  sometimes  cow- 
ardice. The  real  servant  of  the  people  is  the  executive  who 
is  not  afraid  of  the  men  who  elected  him  when  it  comes  to  a 
question  between  order  and  disorder.  So  long  as  negroes  are 
hunted  in  great  cities,  voters  are  intimidated  in  ancient  com- 
monwealths, street-car  traffic  is  prevented  in  great  cities,  and 
public  buildings  are  blown  up  by  dynamite,  it  is  idle  to  talk 
about  the  danger  of  too  much  government  in  the  United 
States, 


146  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

NATIONAL  HONOR. 


CARL    SCHURZ. 

The  honor  of  a  person,  in  the  general  sense  of  the  term,  is 
his  moral  dignity.  To  offend  or  wound  a  person's  honor  means 
to  deny  or  impeach  his  moral  dignity  so  as  to  lower  it  in  the 
estimation  of  others,  and  perhaps  also  in  his  own  self-respect. 
To  forfeit  one's  honor  means  to  do  something,  or  to  permit 
something  to  be  done,  which  is  incompatible  with  one's  moral 
dignity.  This  applies  to  nations  as  well  as  to  individuals. 

Whatever  divergences  of  opinion  on  these  points  may  still 
exist  in  this  country,  no  American  capable  of  sober  reflection 
can  seriously  hold  the  belief  that  considerations  of  national 
honor  would  require,  or  even  that  its  moral  dignity  would 
permit,  this  great  republic  to  swagger  about  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  with  a  chip  on  its  shoulder,  shaking  its 
fist  under  everybody's  nose,  and  telling  the  world  on  every 
possible  occasion  that  we  can  "whip"  any  power  that  might 
choose  to  resent  this,  and  that  we  would  be  rather  glad  of  an 
opportunity  for  doing  so.  A  private  individual  taking  such 
an  attitude  would  certainly  not  be  called  a  gentleman.  He 
would  be  considered  a  vulgar  bully.  If  a  person  of  great 
physical  strength,  he  would  be  feared  by  some,  esteemed  by 
nobody,  and  heartily  detested  as  a  public  nuisance  by  the 
whole  decent  part  of  the  community.  A  nation  playing  such 
a  role  would  deserve  and  meet  with  the  same  judgment  in  the 
family  of  civilized  nations,  and  at  the  same  time  it  would 
cultivate  within  itself  those  forces  of  evil  which  are  always 
developed  by  a  perversion  of  the  sense  of  honor,  and  the 
consequent  loss  of  true  moral  dignity  and  of  genuine  self- 
respect. 

We  may  well  be  proud  of  the  self-contained  dignity  with 
which  so  far  President  McKinley  and  his  ministers  have  con- 
ducted our  foreign  affairs  amid  the  excitements  of  the  day; 
proud  of  the  wellnigh  unanimous  applause  which  the  calm 
attitude  of  those  in  power  has  elicited  from  the  citizenship 
of  the  country;  and  proud  of  the  fact  that  a  bill  to  put  the  re- 
public in  a  state  of  defense  could  pass  both  Houses  of  Con- 


CARL  SCHURZ.  147 

gress  without  hot  appeals  to  warlike  passions.  This  gives  us 
a  taste  of  that  sense  of  national  honor  which  draws  its  in- 
spiration not  from  hysterical  spasms,  but  from  sober  wisdom; 
not  from  the  brutal  wantonness  of  superior  strength,  but 
from  the  noble  resolve  to  be  all  the  more  just  and  generous, 
because  strong. 


148  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


M.   WOOLSEY  STRYKER, 

(President  of  Hamilton  College.) 

At  the  entrance  of  the  beautiful  park  in  the  City  of  Chicago 
that  bears  his  name,  there  is  placed  commandingly  a  statue 
of  our  greatest  president.  Doubtless  nearly  all  of  you  are 
familiar  with  its  noble  and  unassuming  pose.  A  heart  of 
stone  indeed  must  be  his  who  can  stand  beneath  that  exalted 
figure  before  the  empty  chair  and  not  feel  the  magic  spell  of  a 
mighty  presence.  The  Pantheon  of  time  has  claimed  him  as 
one  of  Humanity's  types  and  leaders. 

We  all  know  the  story  of  his  early  days,  how  with  marvel- 
ous development  he  rose  to  each  new  demand  and  met  it  ade- 
quately. There  never  was  a  day  when  he  was  not  more  of  a 
man  than  the  day  before.  Vast  tact  and  rectitude  together, 
astute  in  deliberation  and  biding  his  time,  he  never  surren- 
dered to  others  one  ounce  of  his  own  responsibility,  and 
proved  his  wisdom  in  taking  all  the  advice  he  could  get  and 
using  what  he  thought  best,  until  the  people  grew  to  know 
him  and  love  him  and  confide  in  him,  and  to  them  he  became, 
not  the  great  President,  though  that  he  was,  but  plain  and 
simple  Honest  Old  Abe. 

Lincoln's  self-restraint  was  not  that  of  a  being  "without 
parts  and  passions,"  but  of  one  controlling  his  forces  for  use. 
Of  slavery  he  said  in  '55:  "I  bite  my  lips  and  keep  quiet;"  but 
a  while  later,  stirred  to  the  depths  by  the  seizure  of  a  free 
black  boy  at  New  Orleans,  he  said:  "By  the  grace  of  God, 
I'll  make  the  ground  of  this  country  too  hot  for  the  feet  of 
slaves!"  It  was  in  that  resolve  that  he  entered  upon  his  great 
work.  He  loved  peace;  but  "a  just  and  lasting  peace."  "I 
hope  it  will  come  soon,  and  come  to  stay,  and  so  come  as  to 
be  worth  the  keeping  for  all  future  time."  Patience  in  him 
became  a  genius,  a  purpose  that  censors  could  neither  hurry 
nor  hinder. 

"He  knew  to  bide  his  time; 
And  can  his  fame  abide 
Still  patient,  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 
Till  the  wise  years  decide. 


M.   WOOLSEY  STRYKER.  149 

Great  captains  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

Disturb  our  judgments  for  the  hour, 
But  at  last  silence  comes; 

These  are  all  gone,  and  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame; 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 
This  many-sided,  yet  directly  simple  President,  this  greatest 
democrat  of  history,  ennobled  the  people  by  trusting  them, 
and  trusting  himself  to  them,  as  they  ennobled  themselves  by 
responding  to  that  trust.  "When  he  speaks,"  wrote  Lowell, 
"it  seems  as  if  the  people  were  listening  to  their  own  thinking 
aloud."  His  alert  ear  heard  always  that  little  click  which 
precedes  the  striking  of  the  clock.  "It  is  most  proper,"  he 
said  at  Buffalo,  "that  I  should  wait  and  see  the  developments 
and  get  all  the  light  possible,  so  that  when  I  do  speak  au- 
thoritatively, I  may  be  as  near  right  as  possible."  "Why 
should  there  not  be"  (so  went  his  first  inaugural)  "a  patient 
confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people?"  At  "this 
great  tribunal,"  he  pleaded.  "This  is  essentially  a  people's 
contest,"  ran  his  first  message. 

He  knew  how  to  interpret  public  opinion,  and  it  answered 
him  with  a  mighty  and  unbetrayed  confidence.  He  both 
roused  it  to  self-recognition  and  registered  its  vast  resolve. 
The  greatest  lyric  of  those  days  utters  that  response  of  the 
nation,  as  the  deed  vindicated  the  song: 

"Six  hundred  thousand  loyal  men 

And  true  have  gone  before; 
And  we're  coming,  Father  Abraham, 

Three  hundred  thousand  more!" 

Contrasted  with  the  achievements  of  mere  conquerors,  how 
poor  is  all  their  prowess  and  ambition!  Where  is  Bonaparte 
by  the  side  of  that  tall  spirit?  The  first  administration  of 
Washington  gave  a  parallel  in  the  state  of  the  army,  the 
treasury  and  public  opinion;  but  these  were  not  war.  The 
sorrow  for  Hamilton  is  an  analogue.  These  three,  Washing- 
ton, Hamilton,  Lincoln,  the  three  greatest  Americans. 


150  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

COL.   HENRY  WATTERSON. 

(From  his  oration   on  Lincoln,  first  delivered  before  the  Lincoln 
Union  at  the  Auditorium,   Chicago,   February  12,   1895.) 

From  Caesar  to  Bismarck  and  Gladstone  the  world  has  had 
its  statesmen  and  its  soldiers — men  who  rose  to  eminence  and 
power  step  by  step,  through  a  series  of  geometric  progression, 
as  it  were,  each  advancement  following  in  regular  order  one 
after  the  other,  the  whole  obedient  to  well-established  and 
well-understood  laws  of  cause  and  effect.  They  were  not 
what  we  call  "men-  of  destiny."  They  were  "men  of  the 
time."  They  were  men  whose  careers  had  a  beginning,  a  mid- 
dle, and  an  end,  rounding  off  lives  with  histories,  full  it  may 
be  of  interesting  and  exciting  events,  but  comprehensive  and 
comprehensible,  simple,  clear,  complete. 

The  inspired  ones  are  fewer.  Whence  their  emanation, 
where  and  how  they  got  their  power,  by  what  rule  they  lived, 
moved,  and  had  their  being,  we  know  not.  There  is  no  ex- 
plication to  their  lives.  They  rose  from  shadow  and  they 
went  in  mist.  We  see  them,  feel  them,  but  we  know  them 
not.  They  came,  God's  word  upon  their  lips;  they  did  their 
office,  God's  mantle  about  them;  and  they  vanished,  God's 
holy  light  between  the  world  and  them,  leaving  behind  a 
memory,  half  mortal  and  half  myth.  From  first  to  last  they 
were  the  creations  of  some  special  Providence,  baffling  the  wit 
of  man  to  fathom,  defeating  the  machinations  of  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil,  until  their  work  was  done,  then  pass- 
ing from  the  scene  as  mysteriously  as  they  had  come  upon  it. 

Tried  by  this  standard,  where  shall  we  find  an  example  so 
impressive  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  career  might  be 
chanted  by  a  Greek  chorus  as  at  once  the  prelude  and  the 
epilogue  of  the  most  imperial  theme  of  modern  times? 

Born  as  lowly  as  the  Son  of  God,  in  a  hovel;  reared  in 
penury,  squalor,  with  no  gleam  of  light  or  fair  surrounding; 
without  graces,  actual  or  acquired;  without  name  or  fame  or 
official  training;  it  was  reserved  for  this  strange  being,  late 
in  life,  to  be  snatched  from  obscurity,  raised  to  supreme  com- 
mand at  a  supreme  moment,  and  intrusted  with  the  destiny  of 
a  nation. 


COL.   HENRY  WATTERSON.  151 

The  great  leaders  of  his  party,  the  most  experienced  and 
accomplished  public  men  of  the  day,  were  made  to  stand 
aside,  were  sent  to  the  rear,  whilst  this  fantastic  figure  was 
led  by  unseen  hands  to  the  front  and  given  the  reins  of  power. 
It  is  immaterial  whether  we  were  for  him  or  against  him; 
wholly  immaterial.  That  during  four  years,  carrying  with 
them  such  a  weight  of  responsibility  as  the  world  never  wit- 
nessed before,  he  filled  the  vast  space  allotted  him  in  the 
eyes  and  actions  of  mankind,  is  to  say  that  he  was  inspired 
of  God,  for  nowhere  else  could  he  have  acquired  the  wisdom 
and  the  virtue. 

Where  did  Shakespeare  get  his  genius?  Where  did  Mozart 
get  his  music?  Whose  hand  smote  the  lyre  of  the  Scottish 
plowman,  and  stayed  the  life  of  the  German  priest?  God,  God, 
and  God  alone;  and  as  surely  as  these  were  raised  up  by 
God,  inspired  by  God,  was  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  a  thousand 
years  hence,  no  drama,  no  tragedy,  no  epic  poem,  will  be  filled 
with  greater  wonder,  or  be  followed  by  mankind  with  deeper 
feeling  than  that  which  tells  the  story  of  his  life  and  death. 


MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLASS  DEBATE. 


COL.   HENRY  WATTERSON. 
(From  his   oration   on   Lincoln.) 

A  careful  reading  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  speeches  reveals  the  sum 
total  of  his  creed  touching  the  organic  character  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  at  the  same  time  his  party  view  of  contemporary 
issues.  They  show  him  to  have  been  an  old-line  Whig  of  the 
school  of  Henry  Clay,  with  strong  emancipation  leanings,  a 
thorough  anti-slavery  man,  but  never  an  extremist  or  an 
abolitionist.  To  the  last  he  hewed  to  the  line  thus  laid  down. 
It  is  needful  to  a  complete  understanding  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
relation  to  the  time,  and  to  his  place  in  the  political  history 
of  the  country,  that  the  student  keep  in  mind  these  tenets 
of  Lincoln's  political  philosophy,  as  contained  in  his  speeches. 
They  underlie  all  that  passed  in  the  famous  debate  with 
Douglass,  all  that  their  author  said  and  did  after  he  suc- 
ceeded to  the  presidency.  They  stand  to-day  as  masterpieces 
of  popular  oratory. 

The  debate  with  Douglass  was  the  most  extraordinary  in- 
tellectual spectacular  the  annals  of  our  party  warfare  afford. 
Lincoln  entered  the  canvass  unknown  outside  the  State  of 
Illinois.  He  closed  it  renowned  from  one  end  of  the  land  to 
the  other. 

Judge  Douglass  was  himself  unsurpassed  as  a  stump 
speaker  and  ready  debater,  but  in  that  campaign,  from  first 
to  last,  Douglass  was  at  a  serious  disadvantage.  His  bark 
rode  upon  an  ebbing  tide,  Lincoln's  bark  rode  upon  a  flowing 
tide;  African  slavery  was  the  issue  now,  and  the  whole  trend 
of  modern  thought  was  set  against  slavery.  The  Democrats 
seemed  hopelessly  divided.  The  Little  Giant  had  to  face  a 
triangular  opposition,  embracing  the  Republicans,  the  Ad- 
ministration, or  Buchanan  Democrats,  and  a  little  remnant 
of  the  old  Whigs,  who  fancied  that  their  party  was  still  alive 
and  thought  to  hold  some  kind  of  balance  of  power.  Judge 
Douglass  called  the  combination  the  "allied  army,"  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  deal  with  it  "just  as  the  Russians  dealt 
with  the  allies  at  Sebastopol;  that  is,  the  Russians  did  not 
stop  to  inquire,  when  they  fired  a  broadside,  whether  it  hit 


COL.   HENRY  WATTERSON.  153 

an  Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  or  a  Turk."  It  was  something 
more  than  a  witticism  when  Mr.  Lincoln  rejoined,  "In  that 
case  I  beg  he  will  indulge  us  whilst  we  suggest  to  him  that 
those  allies  took  Sebastopol." 

He  followed  this  center  shot  with  volley  after  volley  of  ex- 
position so  clear,  of  reasoning  so  close,  of  illustration  so 
pointed,  and,  at  times,  of  humor  so  incisive,  that,  though  he 
lost  his  election — though  the  allies  did  not  then  take  Sebas- 
topol—his  defeat  counted  for  more  than  Douglass'  victory, 
for  it  made  him  the  logical  and  successful  candidate  for  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  two  years  later. 

What  could  be  more  captivating  to  an  outdoor  audience 
than  Lincoln's  description  "of  the  two  persons  who  stand 
before  the  people  of  the  State  as  candidates  for  the  Senate," 
to  quote  his  prefatory  words?  "Judge  Douglass,"  he  said, 
"is  of  world-wide  renown.  All  the  anxious  politicians  of  his 
party  have  been  looking  upon  him  as  certainly  to  be 
President  of  the  United  States.  They  have  seen  in 
his  round,  jolly,  fruitful  face  post  offices,  land  offices, 
marshalships  and  cabinet  appointments,  chargeships  and  for- 
eign missions,  bursting  and  spreading  out  in  wonderful  ex- 
uberance, ready  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their  greedy  hands.  And 
as  they  have  been  gazing  upon  this  attractive  picture  so  long, 
they  cannot,  in  the  little  distraction  that  has  taken  place  in 
the  party,  bring  themselves  to  give  up  the  charming  hope,  but 
with  greedier  anxiety  they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him  and 
give  him  marches,  triumphal  entries  and  receptions,  beyond 
what  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they  could  have 
brought  about  in  his  favor.  On  the  contrary,  nobody  has  ever 
expected  me  to  be  President.  In  my  poor,  lean,  lank  face 
nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages  were  sprouting." 

As  the  debate  advanced,  these  cheery  tones  deepened  into 
harsher  notes;  crimination  and  recrimination  followed;  the 
two  gladiators  were  strung  to  their  utmost  tension.  They 
became  dreadfully  in  earnest.  *  *  *  In  that  great  debate 
it  was  Titan  against  Titan;  and  perusing  it,  after  the  lapse 
of  forty  years,  the  philosophic  and  impartial  critic  will  con- 
clude which  got  the  better  of  it,  Lincoln  or  Douglass,  much 
according  to  his  sympathy  with  one  or  the  other.  Douglass, 
as  I  have  said,  had  the  disadvantage  of  riding  an  ebb-tide. 


154  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

But  Lincoln  encountered  the  disadvantage  of  riding  a  flood- 
tide  which  was  flowing  too  fast  for  a  man  so  conservative 
and  so  honest  as  he  was.  Thus  there  was  not  a  little  equivo- 
cation on  both  sides  foreign  to  the  nature  of  the  two.  Both 
wanted  to  be  frank.  Both  thought  they  were  being  frank. 
But  each  was  a  little  afraid  of  his  own  logic;  each  was  a 
little  afraid  of  his  own  following;  and  hence  there  was  con- 
siderable hair-splitting,  involving  accusations  that  did  not 
accuse  and  denials  that  did  not  deny.  They  were  politicians, 
these  two,  as  well  as  statesmen;  what  they  did  not  know 
about  political  campaigning  was  hardly  worth  knowing.  Rev- 
erently I  take  off  my  hat  to  both  of  them;  and  I  turn  down 
the  page;  I  close  the  book  and  lay  it  on  its  shelf,  with  the 
inward  ejaculation,  "There  were  giants  in  those  days!" 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  155 

DEDICATION  OF  THE  GETTYSBURG  BATTLE-FIELD. 


LINCOLN'S    FAMOUS    ADDRESS. 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth 
upon  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and 
dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 
Now,  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether 
that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can 
long  endure. 

We  are  met  on  a  battlefield  of  that  war;  we  have  come 
to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting-place  for 
those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live. 
It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 
But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot  con- 
secrate, we  cannot  hallow  this  ground;  the  brave  men,  living 
and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  beyond 
our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note 
nor  longer  remember  what  we  say  here;  but  it  can  never  for- 
get what  they  did  here. 

It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the 
unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so 
nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to 
the  great  task  remaining  before  us;  that  from  these  honored 
dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this 
nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom;  and 
that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 


156  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

ROBERT  E.  LEE  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


JOHN  W.   DANIEL. 

(From   an  oration   delivered  at   the   Unveiling   of   the  Recumbent 
Figure   of   General    Lee,    at   Washington    and    Lee   Uni- 
versity,   Lexington,    Va.,    June    28,    1883.) 

There  was  no  happier  or  lovelier  home  than  that  of  Col. 
Robert  E.  Lee  in  the  spring  of  1861,  when  for  the  first  time  its 
threshold  was  darkened  with  the  omens  of  civil  war.  Crown- 
ing the  green  slopes  of  the  Virginia  hills  that  overlook  the 
Potomac,  and  embowered  in  stately  trees,  stood  the  venerable 
mansion  of  Arlington,  facing  a  prospect  of  varied  and  impos- 
ing beauty. 

So  situated  was  Colonel  Lee  in  the  spring  of  1861,  upon  the 
verge  of  the  momentous  revolution  of  which  he  became  so 
mighty  a  pillar  and  so  glorious  a  chieftain.  How  can  we 
estimate  the  sacrifice  he  made  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
Union?  Lee  was  emphatically  a  Union  man;  and  Virginia,  to 
the  crisis  of  dissolution,  was  a  Union  state.  He  loved  the 
Union  with  a  soldier's  ardent  loyalty  to  the  government  he 
served,  and  with  a  patriot's  faith  and  hope  in  the  institutions 
of  his  country.  In  January,  1861,  Colonel  Lee,  then  with  his 
regiment  in  Texas,  wrote  to  his  son :— " As  an  American  citi- 
zen, I  take  great  pride  in  my  country,  her  prosperity  and  in- 
stitutions; and  yet  I  would  defend  my  State  were  her  rights 
invaded.  But  I  can  anticipate  no  greater  calamity  to  the 
country  than  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Secession  is  nothing 
but  revolution.  *  *  *  If  the  Union  is  dissolved,  I  shall 
return  to  my  native  State  and  share  the  miseries  of  my  people 
and,  save  in  defense,  will  draw  my  sword  on  none." 

The  war-cloud  lowered.  On  April  15th  came  President  Lin- 
coln's proclamation  for  75,000  men.  This  proclamation  deter- 
mined Virginia's  course,  and  an  ordinance  of  secession  was 
passed.  War  had  come. 

"Under  which  flag?"  was  the  sternly  pathetic  question  that 
Lee  must  now  answer.  On  the  one  hand  Virginia,  now  in  the 
fore-front  of  a  scarcely  organized  revolution,  summoned  him 
to  share  her  lot  in  the  perilous  adventure.  The  young  Con- 
federacy is  without  an  army;  there  is  no  navy,  no  currency. 


JOHN  W.    DANIEL.  157 

There  is  little  but  a  meager  and  widely  scattered  population, 
for  the  most  part  men  of  the  field,  the  prairie,  the  forest  and 
the  mountain,  ready  to  stand  the  hazard  of  an  audacious  en- 
deavor. Did  he  fail,  his  beloved  State  would  be  trampled  in 
the  mire  of  the  ways;  his  people  would  be  captives,  their 
very  slaves  their  masters;  and  he — if  of  himself  he  thought 
at  all — he,  mayhap,  may  have  seen  in  the  dim  perspective  the 
shadow  of  the  dungeon  or  the  scaffold. 

On  the  other  hand  stands  the  foremost  and  most  powerful 
Republic  of  the  earth.  Its  regular  army  and  its  myriad  volun- 
teers rush  to  do  its  bidding.  Its  capital  lies  in  sight  of  his 
chamber  window,  and  its  guns  bear  on  the  portals  of  his  home. 
A  messenger  comes  from1  its  President  and  from  General  Scott, 
C.ommander-in-Chief  of  its  army,  to  tender  him  supreme  com- 
mand of  its  forces.  No  man  could  have  undergone  a  more 
trying  ordeal  or  met  it  with  a  higher  spirit  of  heroic  self- 
sacrifice,  since  the  Son  of  Man  stood  upon  the  Mount,  saw  "all 
the  kingdoms  of  earth  and  the  glory  thereof,"  and  turned 
away  from  them  to  the  agony  of  Gethsemane. 

To  the  statesman,  Mr.  Francis  P.  Blair,  who  brought  him 
the  tender  of  supreme  command,  Lee  answered,  "Mr.  Blair,  I 
look  upon  secession  as  anarchy.  If  I  owned  the  four  million 
slaves  in  the  South,  I  would  sacrifice  them  all  to  the  Union. 
But  how  can  I  draw  my  sword  against  Virginia?" 

Draw  his  s.word  against  Virginia?  Perish  the  thought!  Over 
all  the  voices  that  called  he  heard  the  still  small  voice  that 
ever  whispers  to  the  soul  of  the  spot  that  gave  it  birth;  and 
over  every  ambitious  dream,  there  rose  the  face  of  the  angel 
that  guards  the  door  of  home. 

I  pause  not  here  to  defend  the  course  of  General  Lee.  In  the 
supreme  moments  of  national  life,  as  in  the  lives  of  in- 
dividuals, the  actor  must  resolve  and  act  within  himself  alone. 
The  Southern  states  acted  for  themselves — the  Northern 
states  for  themselves— Virginia,  for  herself.  And  when  the 
lines  of  battle  formed,  Lee  took  his  place  in  the  line  beside 
his  people,  his  kindred,  his  children,  his  home.  Let  his  de- 
fense rest  on  this  fact  alone.  Nature  speaks  it.  Nothing  can 
strengthen  it.  Nothing  can  weaken  it.  The  historian  may 
compile;  the  casuist  may  dissect;  the  statesman  may  ex- 
patiate; the  advocate  may  plead;  the  jurist  may  expound; 
but,  after  all,  there  can  be  no  stronger  and  tenderer  tie  than 


158  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

that  which  binds  the  faithful  heart  to  kindred  and  to  home. 
And  on  that  tie — stretching  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  span- 
ning the  heavens,  and  riveted  through  eternity  to  the  throne 
of  God  on  high,  and  underneath  in  the  souls  of  good  men  and 
true — on  that  tie  rests,  stainless  and  immortal,  the  fame  of 
Robert  B.  Lee. 


A  FOLLOWER  OF  LEE. 


JOHN  W.   DANIEL. 
(Source:    Same   as  preceding.) 

In  personal  appearance  General  Lee  was  a  man  whom  once 
to  see  was  ever  to  remember.  His  figure  was  tall,  erect,  well 
proportioned,  lithe  and  graceful.  A  fine  head,  with  broad, 
uplifted  brows,  and  features  boldly  yet  delicately  chiseled, 
bore  the  aspect  of  one  born  to  command.  His  whole  counte- 
nance bespoke  alike  a  powerful  mind  and  an  indomitable  will, 
yet  beamed  with  charity,  benevolence  and  gentleness.  In  his 
manners  quiet,  reserve,  unaffected  courtesy  and  native  dignity, 
made  manifest  the  character  of  one  who  can  only  be  described 
by  the  name  of  gentleman.  And  taken  all  in  all,  his  presence 
possessed  that  grave  and  simple  majesty  which  commanded 
instant  reverence  and  repressed  familiarity;  and  yet  so 
charmed  by  a  certain  modesty  and  gracious  deference,  that 
reverence  and  confidence  were  ever  ready  to  kindle  into  affec- 
tion. It  was  impossible  to  look  upon  him  and  not  to  recog- 
nize at  a  glance  that  in  him  nature  gave  assurance  of  a  man 
created  to  be  great  and  good. 

Mounted  in  the  field  and  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  a  glimpse 
of  Lee  was  an  inspiration.  His  figure  was  as  distinctive  as 
that  of  Napoleon.  The  black  slouch  hat,  the  cavalry  boots, 
the  dark  cape,  the  plain  gray  coat  without  an  ornament  but 
the  three  stars  on  the  collar,  the  calm,  victorious  face,  the 
splendid,  manly  figure  on  the  gray  war  horse — he  looked  every 
inch  the  true  knight — the  grand,  invincible  champion  of  a 
great  principle. 

The  men  who  wrested  victory  from  his  little  band  stood 
wonder-stricken  and  abashed  when  they  saw  how  few  were 


JOHN   W.   DANIEL.  159 

those  who  dared  oppose  them,  and  generous  admiration  burst 
into  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  splendid  leader  who  bore  de- 
feat with  the  quiet  resignation  of  a  hero.  The  men  who 
fought  under  him  never  revered  or  loved  him  more  than  on 
the  day  he  sheathed  his  sword.  Had  he  but  said  the  word, 
they  would  have  died  for  honor.  It  was  because  he  said  the 
word  that  they  resolved  to  live  for  duty. 

Plato  congratulated  himself,  first,  that  he  was  born  a  man; 
second,  that  he  had  the  happiness  of  being  a  Greek;  and, 
third,  that  he  was  a  contemporary  of  Sophocles.  And  in  this 
audience  to-day,  and  here  and  there  the  wide  world  over,  is 
many  an  one  who  wore  the  grey,  who  rejoices  that  he  was 
born  a  man  to  do  a  man's  part  for  his  suffering  country;  that 
he  had  the  glory  of  being  a  Confederate;  and  who  feels  a 
justly  proud  and  glowing  consciousness  in  his  bosom  when 
he  says  unto  himself:  "I  was  a  follower  of  Robert  E.  Lee.  I 
was  a  soldier  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia." 


A  TYPICAL  HERO. 

JOHN  W.   DANIEL. 
(Source:    Same   as  preceding.) 

At  the  bottom  of  true  heroism  is  unselfishness.  Its  crowning 
expression  is  sacrifice.  The  world  is  suspicious  of  vaunted 
heroes;  but  when  the  true  hero  has  come,  how  the  hearts  of 
men  leap  forth  to  greet  him — how  worshipfully  we  welcome 
God's  noblest  work — the  strong,  honest,  fearless,  upright 
man. 

In  Robert  E.  Lee  was  such  a  hero  vouchsafed  to  us  and  to 
mankind,  and  whether  we  behold  him  declining  command 
of  the  Federal  army  to  fight  the  battles  and  to  share  the 
miseries  of  his  own  people;  proclaiming  on  the  heights  in 
front  of  Gettysburg  that  the  fault  of  the  disaster  was  his  own  ; 
leading  charges  in  the  crisis  of  combat;  walking  under  the 
yoke  of  conquest  without  a  murmur  of  complaint;  or  refusing 
fortunes  to  go  to  Washington  and  Lee  University  to  train 
the  youth  of  his  country  in  the  path  of  duty — he  is  ever  the 
same  meek,  grand,  self-sacrificing  spirit.  As  President  of 


160  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Washington  College  he '  exhibited  qualities  not  less  worthy 
and  heroic  than  those  displayed  on  the  broad  and  open  theater 
of  conflict,  when  the  eyes  of  nations  watched  his  every  action. 
In  the  calm  repose  of  civic  and  domestic  duties  and  in  the 
trying  routine  of  incessant  tasks,  he  lived  a  life  as  high  as 
when,  day  by  day.,  he  marshaled  his  thin  and  wasting  lines. 
In  the  quiet  walks  of  academic  life,  far  removed  from  "war 
or  battle's  sound,"  came  into  view  the  towering  grandeur,  the 
massive  splendor  and  the  loving  kindness  of  the  character  of 
General  Lee,  and  the  very  sorrows  that  overhung  his  life 
seemed  luminous  with  celestial  hues.  There  he  revealed  in 
manifold  gracious  hospitalities,  tender  charities,  and  patient, 
worthy  counsels  how  deep  and  pure  and  inexhaustible  were 
the  fountains  of  his  virtues.  And  loving  hearts  delight  to  re- 
call, as  loving  lips  will  ever  delight  to  tell,  the  thousand  little 
things  he  did  which  sent  forth  lines  of  light  to  irradiate  the 
gloom  of  the  conquered  land  and  to  lift  up  the  hopes  and  cheer 
the  works  of  his  people. 

Come  we  then  to-day  in  loyal  love  to  sanctify  our  memories, 
to  purify  our  hopes,  to  make  strong  all  good  intent  by  com- 
munion with  the  spirit  of  him  who,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh. 
Let  us  crown  his  tomb  with  the  oak,  the  emblem  of  his 
strength,  and  with  the  laurel,  the  emblem  of  his  glory.  And 
as  we  seem  to  gaze  once  more  on  him  we  loved  and  hailed  as 
chief,  the  tranquil  face  is  clothed  with  heaven's  light  and  the 
mute  lips  seem  eloquent  with  the  message  that  in  life  he 
spoke: 

"There  is  a  true  glory  and  a  true  honor;  the  glory  of  duty 
done,  the  honor  of  the  integrity  of  principle/' 


PRESIDENT   MCKINLEY.  161 

GENERAL  GRANT. 


PRESIDENT     McKINLEY. 

(Extract  from  an  address  delivered  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Grant 
Monument,    New   York,   April   27,   1897.) 

Fellow  Citizens: — A  great  life,  dedicated  to  the  welfare  of 
the  nation,  here  finds  its  earthly  coronation.  Even  if  this 
day  lacked  the  impressiveness  of  ceremony  and  was  devoid 
of  pageantry,  it  would  still  be  memorable,  because  it  is  the 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  one  of  the  most  famous  and  best- 
beloved  of  American  soldiers. 

A  great  life  never  dies.  Great  deeds  are  imperishable;  great 
names  immortal.  General  Grant's  services  and  character  will 
continue  undiminished  in  influence  and  advance  in  the  esti- 
mation of  mankind  so  long  as  liberty  remains  the  corner-stone 
of  free  government  and  integrity  of  life  the  guaranty  of  good 
citizenship. 

Faithful  and  fearless  as  a  volunteer  soldier,  intrepid  and 
invincible  as  commander  in  chief  of  the  Armies  of  the  Union, 
calm  and  confident  as  President  of  a  reunited  and  strength- 
ened Nation  which  his  genius  had  been  instrumental  in 
achieving,  he  has  our  homage  and  that  of  the  world;  but, 
brilliant  as  was  his  public  character,  we  love  him  all  the  more 
for  his  home  life  and  homely  virtues.  His  individuality,  his 
bearing  and  speech,  his  simple  ways,  had  a  flavor  of  rare  and 
unique  distinction,  and  his  Americanism  was  so  true  and  un- 
compromising that  his  name  will  stand  for  all  time  as  the 
embodiment  of  liberty,  loyalty  and  national  unity. 

Victorious  in  the  work  which  under  Divine  Providence  he 
was  called  upon  to  do;  clothed  with  almost  limitless  power, 
he  was  yet  one  of  the  people — plain,  patient,  patriotic  and 
just.  Success  did  not  disturb  the  even  balance  of  his  mind, 
while  fame  was  powerless  to  swerve  him  from  the  path  of 
duty.  Great  as  he  was  in  war,  he  loved  peace,  and  told  the 
world  that  honorable  arbitration  of  differences  was  the  best 
hope  of  civilization. 

With  Washington  and  Lincoln,  Grant  has  an  exalted  place 
in  history  and  the  affections  of  the  people.  To-day  his  mem- 
ory is  held  in  equal  esteem  by  those  whom  he  led  to  victory 
and  by  those  who  accepted  his  generous  terms  of  peace.  The 


162  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

veteran  leaders  of  the  Blue  and  the  Gray  here  meet  not  only  to 
honor  the  name  of  the  departed  Grant,  but  to  testify  to  the 
living  reality  of  a  fraternal  national  spirit  which  has  tri- 
umphed over  the  differences  of  the  past  and  transcends  the 
limitations  of  sectional  lines. 

It  is  right,  then,  that  General  Grant  should  have  a  memorial 
commensurate  with  his  greatness,  and  that  his  last  resting 
place  should  be  the  city  of  his  choice,  to  which  he  was  so 
attached  in  life  and  of  whose  ties  he  was  not  forgetful  even 
in  death.  Fitting,  too,  is  it  that  the  great  soldier  should 
sleep  beside  the  noble  river  on  whose  banks  he  first  learned 
the  art  of  war  and  of  which  he  became  master  and  leader 
without  a  rival. 

New  York  holds  in  its  keeping  the  precious  dust  of  the  si- 
lent soldier;  but  his  achievements — what  he  and  his  brave 
comrades  wrought  for  mankind — are  in  the  keeping  of  seventy 
millions  of  American  citizens,  who  will  guard  the  sacred  her- 
itage forever  and  forevermore. 


"THE  SOLDIER'S  LAST  SALUTE." 

HORACE    PORTER. 

On  the  morning  of  Decoration  Day,  1885,  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic,  the  veterans  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York  City 
who  had  served  under  General  Grant,  rose  earlier  than  was 
their  wont,  spent  more  time  than  usual  in  unfurling  their  old 
battle  flags  and  in  burnishing  the  medals  of  honor  which  dec- 
orated their  breasts;  for  they  had  resolved  on  that  day  to 
march  by  the  house  of  their  dying  commander  and  give  him 
one  last  marching  salute. 

Outside  that  house  the  street  was  filled  with  marching  men 
and  martial  music.  Inside  that  house  the  old  chief  lay  on  a 
bed  of  anguish,  the  pallor  of  death  already  beginning  to  over- 
spread his  illustrious  features.  The  hand  which  had  seized 
the  surrendered  swords  of  countless  thousands  was  scarcely 
aBle  to  return  the  pressure  of  a  friendly  grasp;  the  voice 
which  had  cheered  on  to  triumphant  victory  the  legions  of 
American  manhood  was  no  longer  able  to  call  for  the  cooling 


HORACE 


163 


draft  which  slaked  the  thirst  of  a  fevered  tongue.  And  pros- 
trate upon  that  bed  of  suffering  lay  the  form  which  in  the 
new  world  had  ridden  at  the  head  of  conquering  columns;  in 
the  old  world  had  marched  through  the  palaces  of  crowned 
heads  with  the  descendants  of  a  line  of  kings  rising  and 
standing  uncovered  in  his  presence. 

His  ear  caught  the  sound  of  the  movement  of  marching 
men.  The  bands  were  playing  the  grand  strains  which  had 
mingled  with  the  echo  of  his  guns  at  Vicksburg,  playing  the 
same  quicksteps  to  which  his  men  had  sped  in  hot  haste  in 
pursuit  of  Lee  through  Virginia,  and  then  came  the  steady, 
measured,  swinging  step  of  war-trained  men,  which  seemed 
to  shake  the  earth.  He  understood  it  all  then.  It  was  the 
tread  of  his  old  veterans.  He  seized  his  crutch  and  dragged 
himself  painfully  and  slowly  to  the  window.  As  he  saw  those 
old  battle  flags  dipping  to  him  in  salute  he  once  more  drew 
himself  into  the  position  of  a  soldier,  and  as  he  gazed  upon 
those  banners,  bullet-ridden  and  battle-stained,  many  of  them 
but  a  remnant  of  their  formei  selves,  there  kindled  in  his 
eyes  the  flames  which  had  lightened  them  at  Chattanooga,  in 
the  Wilderness,  amidst  the  glories  of  Appomattox;  and  as 
those  veterans  bared  their  heads  to  that  May  morning's  breeze 
and  looked  for  the  last  time  with  upturned  eyes  on  their  old 
chief,  cheeks  which  in  marching  under  him  had  been  bronzed 
by  southern  suns  and  begrimed  with  powder  were  now  bathed 
in  tears  of  manly  grief.  And  then  they  saw  rising  the  hand 
which  had  so  often  pointed  out  to  them  the  path  of  victory. 
He  raised  it  slowly  and  feebly  to  his  head,  in  acknowledgment 
of  their  salutations.  The  last,  of  the  column  passed.  The 
hand  fell  heavily  by  his  side.  It  was  the  soldier's  last  salute. 


164  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  NEGRO  VOTE  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

HENRY  W.  GRADY. 

(From  his  reply  to  'Mr.  Cable:     "In  Plain  Black  and  White.") 

The  question  is  asked  repeatedly,  "When  will  the  black  man 
in  the  South  cast  a  free  ballot?  When  will  he  have  the  civil 
rights  that  are  his?" 

When  will  the  black  cast  a  free  ballot?  When  ignorance 
anywhere  is  not  dominated  by  the  will  of  the  intelligent; 
when  the  laborer  anywhere  casts  a  ballot  unhindered  by  his 
boss;  when  the  strong  and  the  steadfast  do  not  everywhere 
control  the  suffrage  of  the  weak  and  the  shiftless.  Then,  but 
not  till  then,  will  the  ballot  of  the  negro  be  free. 

The  white  people  of  the  South  are  banded  together  not  in 
race  prejudice  against  the  blacks,  not  in  sectional  estrange- 
ment, not  in  the  desire  of  political  dominion,  but  in  a  deep 
and  abiding  necessity.  Here  is  this  vast  ignorant  and  venal 
vote — clannish,  credulous,  impulsive  and  passionate — tempted 
by  every  art  of  the  demagogue,  but  insensible  to  the  appeal 
of  the  statesman.  Its  credulity  is  imposed  upon,  its  patience 
is  inflamed,  its  cupidity  is  aroused,  its  impulses  are  misdi- 
rected, and  even  its  superstitions  made  to  play  their  part 
in  a  campaign  in  which  every  interest  of  society  is  jeopardized 
and  every  approach  to  the  ballot  box  is  debauched.  It  is 
against  such  campaigns — the  folly  and  bitterness  of  which 
every  Southern  community  has  drunk  deeply — that  the  white 
people  of  the  South  are  banded  together.  Just  as  you  in  New 
York  State  would  be  banded  if  300,000  voters,  not  one  in  a 
hundred  able  to  read  his  own  ballot,  unified  by  a  race  instinct, 
cherishing  against  you  the  memory  of  a  hundred  years  of 
slavery,  taught  by  your  late  conquerors  to  hate  and  distrust 
you,  had  already  travestied  legislation  from  your  state  capitol, 
and  in  every  species  of  folly  had  wasted  your  substance  and 
exhausted  your  credit.  The  negro  can  never  control  in  the 
South,  and  it  would  be  well  if  partisans  in  the  North  would 
understand  this.  If  there  is  any  human  force  that  cannot 
be  withstood  it  is  the  power  of  the  banded  intelligence  and 
responsibility  of  a  free  community.  Against  this  numbers 
and  corruption  cannot  prevail.  It  cannot  be  forbidden  in  the 


HENRY   W.    GRADY.  165 

law  or  divorced  in  force.  It  is  the  inalienable  right  of  every 
free  community  and  the  just  and  righteous  safeguard  against 
an  ignorant  and  corrupt  suffrage.  It  is  on  this  that  we  rely 
in  the  South,  not  on  the  cowardly  menace  of  mask  or  shot- 
gun, but  upon  the  peaceful  majesty  of  intelligence  and  re- 
sponsibility, massed  and  unified  for  the  protection  of  its 
homes  and  the  preservation  of  its  liberties.  This  is  our  re- 
liance and  our  hope,  and  against  it  all  the  powers  of  the 
earth  cannot  prevail.  You  may  pass  your  force  bills,  but 
they  will  not  avail.  You  may  surrender  your  own  liberties  to 
a  Federal  election  law;  you  may  invite  Federal  interference 
with  the  New  England  town-meeting,  that  has  stood  for  a 
hundred  years  as  the  guarantee  of  local  government  in  Amer- 
ica; that  old  state  which  holds  in  its  charter  the  boast  that  it 
is  a  "free  and  independent  commonwealth"  may  surrender  its 
own  political  machinery  to  a  Federal  government  which  it 
helped  to  create,  but  never  will  a  single  state,  North  or  South, 
be  again,  delivered  to  the  control  of  an  ignorant  and  inferior 
race. 

We  wrested  our  state  government  from  negro  supremacy 
when  the  Federal  drumbeat  rolled  closer  to  the  ballot  box  and 
when  Federal  bayonets  hedged  it  about  closer  than  will  ever 
again  be  permitted  in  this  free  community.  But  if  Federal 
cannon  thundered  in  every  voting  district  of  the  South  we 
would  still  find  in  the  mercy  of  God  the  means  and  the  cour- 
age to  prevent  its  re-establishment. 


166  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

THE  NEGRO  IN  POLITICS. 


CARL    SCHURZ. 

Emancipation  has  brought  to  the  colored  people  of  the 
United  States,  with  its  blessings,  also  many  disappointments. 
It  was  very  natural  that  those  who  had  been  born  and  grew 
up  in  slavery  should,  when  they  heard  the  word  "Freedom" 
pronounced,  have  pictured  to  themselves  with  their  naive  im- 
agination something  very  like  the  life  of  their  masters,  which 
was  to  them  a  subject  of  constant  admiration  and  envy.  When 
emancipation  came  freedom  struck  them,  after  the  first  par- 
oxysm of  joy  was  over,  in  the  shape  of  burdensome  responsi- 
bilities. For  the  first  time  in  their  lives  they  were  confronted 
by  the  stern  necessities  of  taking  care  of  themselves.  Many 
of  the  negroes  of  the  South  had  then  to  suffer  much  for  their 
liberty,  which  brought  to  them  persecutions  and  struggles  for 
life  unknown  to  their  former  condition.  Then  came  the  en- 
dowment of  the  former  slaves  with  the  right  of  suffrage  and 
with  it  dreams  of  power,  which  were  artfully  stimulated  and 
turned  to  their  own  personal  advantage  by  the  more  unscru- 
pulous of  their  white  leaders  At  the  same  time  the  efforts 
to  establish  the  negroes  by  law  in  their  social  position  on 
a  footing  of  equality  with  the  whites — efforts  made  partly 
by  colored  men  themselves,  partly  by  white  philanthropists — 
met  with  exceedingly  slim  success.  The  privileges  that  were 
conceded  to  them  here  and  there  remained  confined  to  mat- 
ters of  apparently  small  moment,  while,  on  the  whole,  in 
spite  of  their  advance  in  education  as  well  as  in  the  posses- 
sion of  property,  they  continued  to  be  treated  as  an  inferior 
race. 

Their  ambitions,  that  had  naturally  been  excited  by  eman- 
cipation, having  thus  been  foiled  on  the  social  field  by  the 
stubborn  resistance  of  race  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  whites, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  negroes  should  wish  to  make 
that  power  on  the  political  field,  which  they  exercise  through 
the  ballot,  tell  to  the  utmost  for  their  benefit.  It  would  be 
too  much  to  expect  that  they  should  do  so  with  great  discre- 
tion. 


CARL  SCHURZ.  167 

But  owing  to  race  feeling  against  them,  they  are  as  politi- 
cians laboring  under  disadvantages  of  a  serious  nature.  The 
colored  politician,  unless  he  be  a  man  of  acknowledged  ability 
and  character,  ordinarily  fails  to  be  taken  seriously.  When 
pressing  his  "claims"  for  recognition  with  energy  he  pro- 
duces not  seldom  the  impression  of  a  droll  forwardness,  which 
is  calculated  very  greatly  to  weaken  the  influence  which  he 
otherwise  might  possess.  Worse  still  is  the  inclination  now 
and  then  shown  by  negro  leaders  or  clubs  of  colored  voters 
to  compel  attention  to  their  wishes  by  the  threat  that  unless 
the  "claims"  of  the  colored  vote  be  sufficiently  recognized  by 
the  party  which  they  have  supported  that  vote  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  other  side.  Such  threats  cannot  but  strengthen 
the  apprehension  already  widely  entertained  that  the  colored 
vote  is,  or  at  least  is  apt  to  become,  a  generally  venal  vote. 
It  is,  therefore,  as  to  their  character  and  the  respectability  of 
their  standing  of  the  highest  importance  to  them  that  their 
political  leaders  should  not  be  mere  spoils-hunters  or  patron- 
age-mongers, but  men  of  principle,  genuine  public  spirit  and 
true  self-respect. 

On  the  whole,  the  friends  of  the  negroes  and  the  wiser  heads 
among  the  colored  people  themselves  can  hardly  fail  to  see 
that  their  political  preferment  must  not  precede  but  follow 
their  advancement  in  the  other  walks  of  life.  A  goodly  num- 
ber of  negroes  achieving  distinction  as  lawyers,  or  as  physi- 
cians, or  as  ministers,  or  as  educators,  or  as  business  men, 
will,  by  the  impression  produced  upon  public  opinion,  effect 
far  more  for  the  political  advancement  of  their  race  than  ever 
so  many  negro  politicians  getting  themselves  elected  to  Con- 
gress or  appointed  to  other  offices,  and  the  places  so  won  will 
indeed  be  marks  of  real  proficiency  and  distinction  and  raise 
the  colored  people  in  that  public  esteem  which  above  all 
things  they  need. 


168  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


BOOKER   T.    WASHINGTON. 
(From  his   book,    "The  Future   of   the  American  Negro.") 

No  race  that  is  so  largely  ignorant  and  so  recently  out  of 
slavery  could,  perhaps,  show  a  better  record  in  the  percentage 
of  crimes  committed  than  the  negroes  in  the  South;  and  yet 
we  must  face  the  plain  fact  that  there  is  too  much  crime 
among  them.  A  large  percentage  of  the  crimes  grow  out  of 
the  idleness  of  our  young  negro  men  and  women.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  I  have  tried  to  insist  that  some  industry  be 
taught  in  connection  with  their  course  of  literary  training. 

No  race  has  ever  gotten  upon  its  feet  without  discourage- 
ments and  struggles.  The  negro,  let  me  add,  has  among  many 
of  the  Southern  whites  as  good  friends  as  he  has  anywhere 
in  the  world.  With  the  best  white  people  and  the  best  black 
people  standing  together  in  favor  of  law  and  order  and  justice, 
I  believe  that  the  safety  and  happiness  of  both  races  will  be 
made  secure. 

We  are  one  in  this  country.  When  one  race  is  strong  the 
other  is  strong;  when  one  is  weak  the  other  is  weak.  There 
is  no  power  that  can  separate  our  destiny.  Unjust  laws  and 
customs  that  exist  in  many  places  injure  the  white  man  and 
inconvenience  the  negro.  No  race  can  wrong  another  race 
simply  because  it  has  the  power  to  do  so  without  being  per- 
manently injured  in  its  own  morals.  If  a  white  man  steals  a 
negro's  ballot  it  is  the  white  man  who  is  permanently  injured. 
Physical  death  comes  to  one  negro  lynched  in  a  county,  but 
death  of  morals  comes  to  those  responsible  for  the  lynching. 

In  the  economy  of  God  there  is  but  one  standard  by  which 
an  individual  can  succeed;  there  is  but  one  for  a  race.  This 
country  expects  that  every  race  shall  measure  itself  by  the 
American  standard.  During  the  next  half  century  and  more 
the  negro  must  continue  passing  through  the  severe  American 
crucible.  He  is  to  be  tested  in  his  patience,  his  forbearance, 
his  perseverance,  his  power  to  endure  wrong — to  withstand 
temptations,  to  economize,  to  acquire  and  use  skill— his  abil- 


BOOKER  T.   WASHINGTON.  169 

ity  to  compete,  to  succeed  in  commerce,  to  disregard  the  su- 
perficial for  the  real,  the  appearance  for  the  substance,  to  be 
great  and  yet  small,  learned  and  yet  simple,  high  and  yet  the 
servant  of  all.  This,  this  is  the  passport  to  all  that  is  best  in 
the  life  of  our  Republic,  and  the  negro  must  possess  it  or  be 
barred  out. 


170  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

FRATERNALISM  VS.  SECTIONALISM. 


HON.    S.    W.    T.    LANHAM,    OF   TEXAS. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
January  10,  1891.) 

I  am  one  of  those  who  rejoice  in  the  belief  that  the  very 
flower  and  chivalry  of  American  manhood  were  eminently 
represented  in  the  soldiery  of  the  war  between  the  States, 
and  I  stand  cheerful  to  accord  the  utmost  credit  to  the  virtue, 
the  courage,  and  the  patriotism  of  every  honest  actor  in  that 
contest,  whether  he  worthily  wore  the  uniform  and  main- 
tained the  flag  of  the  one  side  or  the  other. 

In  this  sentiment  I  am  joined  by  the  men  who  fought  for 
the  Confederacy  and  have  survived  the  clash  of  arms.  I  be- 
lieve that  it  is  reciprocated  by  the  vast  body  of  the  old  sol- 
diers in  the  North.  All  that  is  needed  to  accomplish  the 
utter  destruction  of  sectionalism,  so  far  as  it  may  have 
arisen  on  account  of  the  war,  is  a  correct  understanding  of 
each  other  and  a  concert  of  earnest  action.  To  whatever 
political  organization  we  may  belong,  how  widely  soever  we 
may  separate  in  other  respects,  it  is  not  and  ought  not  to  be 
inconsistent  with  our  conviction  of  loyalty  to  legitimate  party 
demands  and  devotion  to  our  country's  welfare,  to  combine 
our  influence  and  endeavors  to  the  upbuilding  of  citizen 
brotherhood  and  the  downfall  of  sectional  estrangement  and 
hostility.  Whoever  in  this  day  shall  be  tempted  by  selfish 
ambition,  or  other  motive,  to  foster  and  encourage  sectional 
feelings,  is  unworthy  of  consideration  by  his  party  asso- 
ciates, and  should  have  left  upon  him  a  brand  of  excom- 
munication from  the  order  of  American  patriotism. 

Mr.  Chairman,  when  from  the  hilltop  of  the  present,  we 
overlook  the  plains  of  the  next  century;  when  we  survey 
our  national  magnificence  of  to-day,  and  contemplate  the 
mighty  possibilities  of  the  future;  when  we  reflect  how  much 
has  been  accomplished  in  building  up  the  waste  places  and 
healing  the  wounds  made  by  the  war;  when  we  consider  our 
common  origin  and  the  heritage  left  us  by  our  common  sires; 
when  we  realize  the  homogeneity  of  our  ancestry  and  cherish 
together  the  memory  of  their  immortal  deeds;  when  we  jointly 


S.   W.    T.    LANHAM.  171 

admire  the  foundations  they  laid  for  popular  government 
and  behold  with  pride  the  stately  structure  of  liberty  and 
civilization  erected  thereon;  when  we  recognize  our  national 
kinship  and  anticipate  the  splendid  future  products  of  our 
patriotic  and  co-operative  energies;  when  we  observe  how 
necessary  we  all  are  to  each  other — surely,  when  we  appre- 
ciate all  these  things,  there  is  no  room  for  individual  resent- 
ment or  sectional  antagonism,  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  is 
every  inducement  for  the  beneficent  reign  of  a  cordial  Amer- 
ican fellowship. 

Indulge  me,  in  conclusion,  to  say  that  I  wish  I  could  incite 
the  old  soldiers  throughout  the  land  to  "the  victories  of 
peace;"  to  wage  uncompromising  hostility  against  every  spe- 
cies of  unjust  proscription  of  their  fellow  men;  to  strike  to 
the  death  the  vice  of  sectionalism;  to  tear  down  the  battle- 
ments of  monopoly;  to  crush  out  the  evils  of  class  legisla- 
tion; to  break  the  manacles  of  industrial  captivity  and  com- 
mercial subjugation;  to  shatter  the  bolts  which  lock  up  from 
the  channels  of  trade  the  necessary  supply  of  monetary  cir- 
culation; to  batter  down  the  prison  walls  which  restrain 
any  of  the  agencies  and  factors  of  our  national  growth  and 
prosperity,  and  to  fully  enlarge  all  the  elements  that  logically 
combine  to  make  this  the  best  government  on  the  face  of  the 
ea7th.  To  this  end, 

Good  speed  the  day  when  from  North  and  South,  all 

Shall  meet  as  one — 

At  the  glad  welcome  of  their  country's  call. 


172  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


A  UNITED  COUNTRY. 

SENATOR   GEORGE   F.   HOAR. 

(From    a    speech    delivered   before    the   New    England   Society    at 
Charleston,   S.  C.,  December,  1898.) 

If  cordial  friendship  can  ever  exist  between  two  communi- 
ties, it  should  exist  between  Massachusetts  and  South  Caro- 
lina. They  were  alike  in  the  circumstances  of  their  origin. 
The  English  pilgrims  and  Puritans  founded  Massachusetts, 
Scotch  Presbyterians  founded  Carolina,  to  be  followed  soon 
after  by  the  French  exiles  fleeing  from  the  same  oppression. 

If  there  be  a  single  lesson  which  the  people  of  this  country 
have  learned  from  their  wonderful  and  crowded  history,  it  is 
that  the  North  and  South  are  indispensable  to  each  other. 
They  are  the  blades  of  mighty  shears,  worthless  apart,  but, 
when  bound  by  indissoluble  union,  powerful,  irresistible,  and 
terrible  as  the  shears  of  Fate. 

Whatever  estrangement  may  have  existed  in  the  past,  or 
may  linger  among  us  now,  are  born  of  ignorance  and  will 
be  dispelled  by  knowledge.  The  American  people  have 
learned  to  know,  as  never  before,  the  quality  of 
Southern  stock  and  to  value  its  noble  contribution 
to  the  American  character;  its  courage  in  war,  its 
attachment  to  home  and  State,  its  love  of  rural  life,  its 
capacity  for  great  affection  and  generous  emotion,  its  apt- 
ness for  command;  above  all,  its  constancy,  that  virtue  above 
all  virtues,  without  which  no  people  can  long  be  either  great 
or  free. 

The  time  has  come  when  Americans — North,  South,  East 
and  West — may  discuss  any  question  of  public  interest  in  a 
friendly  and  quiet  spirit,  each  understanding  the  other,  each 
striving  to  help  the  other  as  men  who  are  bearing  a  com- 
mon burden  and  looking  forward  with  a  common  hope. 
On  the  whole,  we  are  advancing  quite  as  rapidly  as  could 
be  expected  to  the  time  when  all  the  different  races  of  men 
will  live  together  on  American  soil,  in  honor,  and  in  peace, 
every  man  enjoying  his  just  right  wherever  the  American 
flag  floats,  where  the  influence  of  intelligence,  of  courage, 


SENATOR   GEORGE   F.    HOAR.  173 

of  energy  inspired  by  a  lofty  patriotism  and  a  Christian  love, 
will  have  its  full  and  legitimate  effect,  not  through  disorder, 
or  force,  or  lawlessness,  but  under  the  silent  and  sure  law 
by  which  always  the  superior  leads  and  the  inferior  follow. 


NATIONAL  UNITY  AND  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY. 


WM.   L.    PRATHER, 

(President  of  the  University  of  Texas.) 

(Extract  from  his  address  delivered  at  the  Commencement  Exer- 
cises of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  June  .13,  1900.) 

The  idea  of  national  unity  is  as  yet  young.  We  have  been 
geographically  a  nation,  territorially  a  nation,  governmentally 
a  nation,  ethically  a  nation — for  a  century.  But  the  develop- 
ment of  a  true  national  unity  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
term  is  one  of  the  great  problems  for  the  education  of  the 
future — a  problem  whose  significance  and  importance  we  must 
be  fully  awake  to. 

Think  of  the  intellectual  triumphs  which  await  a  nation 
of  eighty  million  souls,  enjoying  opportunities  of  culture  that 
are  accessible  to  all,  from  the  meanest  to  the  highest,  un- 
trammeled  by  artificial  social  distinctions,  possessing  a  quick- 
ness of  intellect  and  adaptability  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
solid  and  sturdy  moral  character,  to  form  the  best  founda- 
tion for  the  best  kind  of  intellectual  culture;  and  possessing 
those  elements  and  characteristics  in  a  measure  and  degree 
unequaled  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  This  is  our  op- 
portunity, and  if  we  fail  to  realize  it,  we  are  failing  of  a  full 
conception  of  our  national  duty. 

One  of  the  happiest  results  which  the .  intercommunication 
of  education  has  wrought  is  the  larger  ability  to  discuss 
philosophically,  wisely,  and  with  less  passion  and  prejudice, 
the  great  questions  affecting  us  as  a  nation  and  parts  of  the 
same  nation.  We  should  never  forget  that  we  are  brothers, 
members  of  the  same  household;  that  this  nation  is  a  family 
of  states;  and  that  whatever  affects  favorably  or  unfavorably 
the  welfare  of  one,  affects  the  whole  nation.  We  must  rise 


174  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

to  a  true  conception  of  this  idea  if  we  would  in  the  future 
avoid  sectionalism,  and  secure  the  welfare  of  the  whole  people 
rather  than  the  welfare  of  a  particular  section.  Truth  and 
frankness  should  characterize  our  dealings  with  each  other 
as  individuals,  as  states,  and  as  a  whole  people.  One  of  the 
most  potent  forces  now  contributing  to  the  development  of 
such  a  national  sympathy  is  the  State  University. 

If  it  be  true  that  "the  arrival  of  democracy  is  the  fact  of  our 
time,  which  overshadows  all  other  facts,"  the  very  incarna- 
tion of  true  democracy  is  found  in  the  modern  State  Univers- 
ity. A  university  for  the  people  without  distinctions  of  rank 
is  the  regenerating  thought  of  the  new  world.  In  the  glorious 
progress  of  American  manhood  and  womanhood,  universities 
are  the  torchbearers  of  American  civilization.  It  is  a  serious 
error  on  the  part  of  our  politicians  to  charge  that  the  great 
teachers  and  thinkers  of  our  universities  are  mere  theorists. 
No  wiser  step  has  been  taken  by  our  rulers  than  when  they 
utilized  in  the  affairs  of  government  the  training,  the  learn- 
ing, and  the  wisdom  of  the  scholars  of  this  nation.  They 
brought  to  their  aid  the  lessons  of  all  history,  and  bravely 
applied  them  to  the  solution  of  new  and  perplexing  prob- 
lems, thereby  enriching  the  achievements  of  American  states- 
manship. To  these  great  centers  of  learning,  planted  in  every 
state  of  this  rapidly  expanding  union,  as  well  as  to  our  com- 
mon schools,  we  must  look  in  the  future  for  that  stalwart 
and  vitalizing  American  sentiment  which  shall  not  only 
withstand,  but  shall  quickly  transform  and  assimilate,  the 
uninstructed  foreign  population  now  nocking  to  our  shores. 
Our  safety  as  a  people  demands  a  wise  and  vigorous  effort  to 
educate  the  masses  to  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  bless- 
ings which  we  as  freemen  enjoy.  The  educational  forces  of 
this  country  are  doing  a  great  work  towards  breaking  down 
sectionalism,  allaying  party  strife  and  promoting  the  peace, 
prosperity  and  unity  of  this  nation. 

It  is  my  clear  conviction  that  it  would  be  wise  for  the 
American  people  to  cease  establishing  new  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, and  to  concentrate  their  efforts  in  strengthening 
those  already  founded,  thereby  increasing  their  power  and 
efficiency.  The  State  University  at  the  head  of  the  state 
system  of  education  is  an  evolution  of  the  best  western 
thought,  and  the  noblest  civic  achievement  of  the  common- 


WM.    L.    PRATHER.  175 

wealth.  There  should  be  the  closest  and  most  harmonious 
relation  between  the  university  and  all  the  educational  agen- 
cies of  the  State.  As  the  university  grows,  its  magnetic  life 
should  pervade  every  district  school,  and  be  an  inspiration 
and  blessing  to  all  good  learning.  The  system  of  elementary 
and  secondary  Education  should  culminate  in  the  university. 
If  the  newer  universities,  thus  developed  from  the  expand- 
ing intellectual  life  of  our  people,  are  tied  in  bonds  of  closest 
sympathy  and  fraternal  co-operation  to  the  older  universities 
already  established,  and  so  unite  with  them  to  maintain  the 
highest  ideals  of  American  life  and  American  thought,  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  American  culture  shall  be  a 
national  culture,  exerting  on  the  nations  of  the  earth  an 
influence ,  as  wide  and  potent  as  was  that  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  in  uplifting  and  enlightening  the  world. 


176  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  CYNIC. 


HENRY   WARD    BBECHER. 
(From  his  Lectures  to  Young  Men.) 

Man  is  corrupt  enough,  but  something  of  good  has  sur- 
vived his  wreck;  something  of  evil  religion  has  restrained, 
and  something  partially  restored;  yet,  I  look  upon  the  human 
heart  as  a  mountain  of  fire.  I  dread  its  crater.  I  tremble 
when  I  see  its  lava  roll  the  fiery  stream.  Therefore  I  am 
the  more  glad,  if  upon  the  old  crust  of  past  eruptions,  I  can 
find  a  single  flower  springing  up.  So  far  from  rejecting  ap- 
pearances of  virtue  in  the  corrupt  heart  of  a  depraved  race, 
I  am  eager  to  see  their  light  as  ever  mariner  was  to  see  a 
star  in  a  stormy  night. 

Moss  will  grow  upon  gravestones;  the  ivy  will  cling  to  the 
mouldering  pile;  the  mistletoe  springs  from  the  dying  branch; 
and,  God  be  praised,  something  green,  something  fair  to  the 
sight  and  grateful  to  the  heart,  will  yet  twine  around  and 
grow  out  of  the  seams  and  cracks  of  the  desolate  temple  of 
the  human  heart! 

The  Cynic  is  one  who  never  sees  a  good  quality  in  a  man, 
and  never  fails  to  see  a  bad  one.  He  is  the  human  owl, 
vigilant  in  darkness  and  blind  to  light,  mousing  for  vermin, 
and  never  seeing  noble  game.  The  Cynic  puts  all  human 
actions  into  only  two  classes — openly  bad  and  secretly  bad. 
All  virtue  and  generosity  and  disinterestedness  are  merely 
the  appearance  of  good,  but  selfish  at  the  bottom.  He  holds 
that  no  man  does  a  good  thing  except  for  profit.  The  effect 
of  his  conversation  upon  your  feelings  is  to  chill  and  sear 
them;  to  send  you  away  sore  and  morose.  His  criticisms 
and  innuendoes  fall  indiscriminately  upon  every  lovely  thing, 
like  frost  upon  flowers. 

It  is  impossible  to  indulge  in  such  habitual  severity  of 
opinion  upon  our  fellowmen,  without  injuring  the  tenderness 
and  delicacy  of  our  own  feelings.  A  man  will  be  what  his 
most  cherished  feelings  are.  If  he  encourage  a  noble  generos- 
ity, every  feeling  will  be  enriched  by  it;  if  he  nurse  bitter 
and  envenomed  thoughts,  his  own  spirit  will  absorb  the 


HENRY   WARD   BEECHER.  177 

poison;  and  he  will  crawl  among  men  as  a  burnished  adder, 
whose  life  is  mischief,  and  whose  errand  is  death. 

Although  experience  should  correct  the  indiscriminate  con- 
fidence of  the  young,  no  experience  should  render  them  cal- 
lous to  goodness  wherever  seen.  He  who  hunts  for  flowers 
will  find  flowers;  and  he  who  loves  weeds,  may  find  weeds. 
Let  it  be  remembered,  that  no  man,  who  is  not  himself  mor- 
tally diseased,  will  have  a  relish  for  disease  in  others.  A 
swollen  wretch  may  grin  hideously  at  every  wart  or  excres- 
cence upon  beauty;  a  wholesome  man  will  be  pained  at  it, 
and  seek  not  to  notice  it.  Reject,  then,  the  morbid  ambition 
of  the  Cynic,  or  cease  to  call  yourself  a  man! 


178  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

THE  "PROGRESSIVE  POPULISTS.' 


(From  the  New  York  Sun.) 

The  Missouri  Middle-of-the-Road  Populists  held  a  conven- 
tion in  Kansas  City  last  week,  and  were  much  cheered  by  the 
presence  of  their  national  ticket,  the  Hon.  Wharton  Barker 
of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  and  the  Hon.  Ignatius  Donnelly  of  Nin- 
inger,  Minn.  Unfortunately  the  delegates  were  ashamed  or 
weary  of  the  expressive  and  straight-spined  name  which  their 
party  has  hitherto  borne.  After  much  anxious  deliberation 
they  decided  to  call  their  organization  the  Progressive  Popu- 
list party.  Now,  it  is  not  any  more  progressive  than  the 
Dead  Sea.  The  delegates  "solemnly  affirmed  their  allegiance 
to  the  immortal  principles  set  forth  in  the  Omaha  platform." 
Those  immortal  principles  may  be  correctly  summarized  as 
the  proposition  that  everything  is  going  to  the  worst  in  the 
worst  of  all  possible  worlds — a  theory  that  may  have  had  its 
attractions  for  some  persons  when  the  country's  liver  was  a 
little  out  of  order,  but  is  essentially  comic  in  these  happier 
days.  Yet  this  noble  continuous  contempt  of  facts  is  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  Middle-of-the-Roaders  and  will  not  be  lost 
by  them  in  their  Progressive  period. 

The  Hon.  W.  C.  Alldridge  of  California,  Mo.,  was  the  unani- 
mous choice  of  the  convention  for  Governor,  but  he  waved 
the  honor  away.  He  said  his  health  was  bad.  His  language 
was  vigorous  enough.  "Skinning  Democrats  is  my  forte,"  he 
cried;  "I  can  skin  a  Democrat  quicker  than  Sheol  can  scorch 
a  flea."  The  delegates  implored  him  to  begin  to  flay.  They 
said  that  they  would  do  his  farm  work  for  him,  but  he  was 
resolute  in  refusal.  So  the  Hon.  J.  H.  Hillis,  who  promised 
that  he  would  help  the  good  cause  to  the  extent  of  $200,  $300, 
or  even  $500,  was  nominated. 

The  platform  is  long  and  hot.  It  whacks  the  Republicans 
and  Democrats  with  unsparing  rod.  It  seems  that  everybody 
is  corrupt,  except  the  Progressive  Populists,  but  with  the  aid 
of  initiative,  referendum,  imperative  mandate  and  propor- 
tional representation  "the  great  moral,  social  and  economic 
questions  of  the  age"  can  be  settled.  All  official  salaries  ought 
to  be  reduced  "so  as  to  conform  to  the  reduction  that  has 


THE  "PROGRESSIVE  POPULISTS."  179 

taken  place  in  the  price  of  products," — a  favorite  scheme  of 
Populists  of  all  shades  until  they  get  into  office,  when  they 
forget  it. 

Here  is  the  particular  jewel  of  the  platform: 
"The  issuance  of  licenses  to  Trusts,  thereby  making  Trusts 
legitimate,  and  permanently  fastening  them  upon  the  nation, 
under  the  plan  now  being  advocated  by  Mr.  William  J.  Bryan 
and  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller  of  the  Standard  Oil  Trust,  we 
denounce  as  a  designing  scheme  to  enable  corrupt  and  decay- 
ing political  parties,  by  the  levy  of  political  blackmail  upon 
the  Trusts,  to  extort  enormous  sums,  under  the  name  of  cam- 
paign funds,  for  use  in  the  corruption  of  State  and  National 
elections." 

So  David  is  only  "putting  up"  a  sham  fight  with  Goliath! 
Such  is  the  bitter  judgment  passed  by  the  Progressive  Popu- 
lists on  the  Populist  leader  of  1896. 


180  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

MATERIALISM. 


FELIX  ADLER. 

There  are  two  theories  of  life,  precisely  opposite  to  each 
other,  which  to-day  have  a  pernicious  influence  on  the  family. 
They  are  individualism  and  socialism.  Individualism  is  the 
doctrine  of  people  who  like  to  be  alone,  to  do  as  they  please. 
When  every  member  of  the  family  feels  that  way,  that  inter- 
dependence which  is  the  joy  and  beauty  of  family  life  is  de- 
stroyed. In  its  extreme  form  individualism  in  politics  leads 
straight  to  anarchism. 

Socialism,  on  the  other  hand,  commends  itself  to  those  who 
like  to  be  in  a  crowd.  It  is  a  grand  idea,  that  of  universal 
fraternity,  but  if  it  means  in  practice  merely  the  minimizing 
of  your  duty  to  your  own  kith  and  kin,  it  may  work  great 
evil.  Socialism,  with  all  its  grand  enthusiasms,  is  the  great 
enemy  of  the  family. 

But  the  greatest  enemy  of  all,  perhaps,  is  materialism. 
What  was  the  great  object  of  parents  in  Greece  and  Rome? 
To  make  their  children  happy,  as  we  say?  Not  at  all.  In 
Greece  the  aim  was  to  equip  a  son  to  worthily  hold  a  great 
position  in  the  State.  The  citizens  of  Rome  strove  to  make 
their  children  worthy  members  of  the  sovereign  Roman  peo- 
ple. In  each  case  it  was  that  they  should  serve  interests 
greater  than  themselves.  The  purity  of  Hebrew  family  life 
has  been  proverbial  until  very  recently.  This  purity  was  the 
chief  boast  of  the  race.  The  Jews  above  others  maintained  a 
great  ideal. 

To-day  we  desire  that  our  children  shall  be  good  American 
citizens.  But  we  do  not  educate  our  children  to  be  faithful 
to  Jewish  tradition,  nor  do  Christians  educate  theirs  to  be 
devoted  members  of  the  body  of  Christ.  We  try,  indeed,  to 
"make  them  happy."  When  was  happiness  made  the  chief 
object  of  life?  Formerly  a  father  said  to  his  son:  "I  serve, 
that  you  may  serve."  Now  he  says:  "I  toil,  I  save  up."  For 
what?  Why,  "that  you  may  have  a  good  time."  We  are  not 
selfish  ourselves,  but  we  are  absolutely  selfish  in  regard  for 
our  children.  If  some  power  should  offer  to  make  your  son 
one  of  the  great  chiefs  of  our  time,  a  multi-millionaire,  how 


FELIX   ABLER.  181 

many  of  you  would  not  jump  at  the  offer?  We  must,  indeed, 
educate  our  children  to  get  moderate  wealth,  but  the  aim 
should  be  efficiency  in  necessary  work. 

Why  should  we  throw  temptations  in  the  way  of  our  sons 
by  piling  up  great  fortunes  for  them?  During  the  war  with 
Spain  some  of  the  scions  of  our  wealthy  families  prided  them- 
selves on  their  ability  to  endure  hardships  even  better  than 
the  sons  of  poor  men.  If  so,  why  should  they  return  to 
luxury,  to  the  life  of  clutis?  Why  should  strong,  able  men 
live  like  valetudinarians?  If  we  cultivate  hardihood  in  our 
children,  we  should  not  need  to  worry  about  their  getting  on. 

Why  is  such  a  deep  resentment  felt  against  those  who 
direct  great  financial  operations  to-day,  although  they  may 
unconsciously  be  rendering  a  social  service?  The  question 
has  been  raised  as  to  whether  the  charities  of  these  men  do 
not  justify  their  huge  fortunes.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Such  charity 
cannot  efface  a  single  wrong  done  in  accumulating  the  money. 
President  Hadley  has  suggested  the  ostracizing  of  these  men, 
and  the  pertinent  question  has  been  raised,  Who  will  do  the 
ostracizing?  Our  whole  society  is  infiltrated  with  the  money- 
getting  idea. 

We  should  not  forget  the  example  of  that  Hebrew  mother 
who  was  willing  to  see  her  son  led  even  the  way  of  Calvary, 
in  order  that  He  might  unfold  and  make  manifest  what  was 
divine  in  Him.  The  mothers  who  love  what  is  divine  in 
their  sons,  and  the  sons  who  spring  from  them,  will  renew 
the  world. 


182  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  DEATH  OF  QARFIELD. 


JAMES   G.   ELAINE. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  2,  1881,  President  Garfield 
was  a  contented  and  happy  man — not  in  an  ordinary  degree, 
but  joyfully,  almost  boyishly  happy.  And  surely,  if  happi- 
ness can  ever  come  from  the  honors  or  triumphs  of  this 
world,  on  that  quiet  July  morning  Garfield  may  well  have 
been  a  happy  man.  No  foreboding  of  evil  haunted  him;  no 
premonition  of  danger  clouded  his  sky.  One  moment  he 
stood  erect,  strong,  confident  in  the  years  stretching  peace- 
fully out  before  him.  The  next  he  lay  wounded,  bleeding, 
helpless,  doomed  to  weary  weeks  of  torture,  to  silence,  and 
the  grave. 

Great  in  life,  he  was  surpassingly  great  in  death.  For  no 
cause,  in  the  very  frenzy  of  wantonness  and  wickedness,  by 
the  red  hand  of  murder,  he  was  thrust  from  the  full  tide 
of  this  world's  interest,  from  its  hopes,  its  aspirations,  its 
victories,  into  the  visible  presence  of  death — and  he  did  not 
quail.  Not  alone  for  the  one  short  moment  in  which, 
stunned  and  dazed,  he  could  give  up  life,  hardly  aware  of  its 
relinquishment,  but  through  days  of  deadly  languor,  through 
weeks  of  agony  that  was  not  less  agony  because  silently 
borne,  with  clear  sight  and  calm  courage,  he  looked  into  his 
open  grave.  *  *  * 

As  the  end  drew  near,  his  early  craving  for  the  sea  re- 
turned. The  stately  mansion  of  power  had  been  to  him  the 
wearisome  hospital  of  pain,  and  he  begged  to  be  taken  from 
its  prison  walls,  from  its  oppressive,  stifling  air,  from  its 
homelessness  and  its  hopelessness.  Gently,  silently,  the  love 
of  a  great  people  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed-for 
healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to  die,  as  God  should  will. 
within  sight  of  its  heaving  billows,  within  sound  of  its  mani- 
fold voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face  tenderly  lifted  to  the 
cooling  breeze,  he  looked  out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's 
changing  wonders:  on  its  far  sails,  whitening  in  the  morning 
light;  on  its  restless  waves,  rolling  shoreward  to  break  and 
die  beneath  the  noonday  sun;  on  the  red  clouds  of  evening, 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE.  183 

arching  low  to  the  horizon;  on  the  serene  and  shining  path- 
way of  the  stars. 

Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read  a  mystic  meaning 
which  only  the  rapt  and  parting  soul  may  know.  Let  us 
believe  that  in  the  silence  of  the  receding  world  be  heard 
the  great  waves  breaking  on  a  farther  shore,  and  felt  already 
upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the  eternal  morning. 


184  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

SUCCESS. 


EDWARD    BROOKS. 

Public  sentiment  is  beginning  to  measure  a  man  not  so 
much  by  his  culture  as  by  what  he  can  do  with  his  culture. 
It  demands  efficiency  as  well  as  scholastic  acquirements,  claim- 
ing that  a  learned  fool  is  no  better  than  an  ignorant  expert. 
It  begins  to  look  upon  the  eccentricities  of  genius  as  a  mat- 
ter of  weakness,  instead  of  mere  oddity.  Does  it  add  to  a 
man's  ability  that  he  lacks  common  sense?  Would  Goldsmith 
have  been  less  a  genius  if  he  had  been  less  a  fool?  Or  New- 
ton less  a  philosopher  of  he  had  not  been  so  absent-minded 
as  to  forget  his  engagements?  Or  Dr.  Hill  less  a  thinker  if 
his  wife  was  not  obliged  to  watch  him  to  keep  him  from 
going  into  the  pulpit  with  an  old  dressing-gown  on?  It.  is 
time  that  this  idea  was  exploded;  there  is  no  necessary  rela- 
tion between  genius  and  foolishness.  The  greatest  English 
poet  went  to  London  a  poor  boy,  and  by  his  practical  knowl- 
edge of  men  and  things  became  manager  of  a  theater  and 
possessor  of  a  fortune.  Dickens,  the  greatest  modern  novel- 
ist, was  distinguished  quite  as  much  for  his  business  tact  and 
skill  as  for  his  genius. 

The  conditions  of  successful  achievement  are  a  correct  ideal 
and  intelligent,  persistent  and  courageous  labor.  First,  you 
must  have  a  purpose  in  life.  An  aimless  life  is  a  sad  specta- 
cle; not  so  sad  perhaps,  as  a  ruined  life,  but  not  much  more 
admirable.  Every  individual  should  become  a  living  force  in 
society.  The  Hindoos  believe  that  the  destiny  of  mankind 
was  the  loss  of  personality  by  absorption  into  Brahma.  Most 
persons  are  so  aimless  in  their  lives,  so  devoid  of  high  or 
noble  purpose,  that  they  lose  their  individuality  in  the  great 
Brahma  of  society.  Man  is  an  individual,  not  a  mere  unit 
in  a  mass;  a  personality,  riot  merely  a  member  of  a  body 
politic.  The  masses;  did  you  ever  think  what  a  fearful 
lack  of  that  which  is  noblest  in  humanity  is  contained  in 
that  word?  It  ignores  that  which  is  highest  and  best  in 
human  nature,  man's  freedom  and  power  of  self-origination 
and  self-determining  influence.  Masses  of  men  and  herds  of 
buffaloes;  these  are  kindred  thoughts.  You  should  labor  for 


EDWARD   BROOKS.  185 

personality;  for  emancipation  from  the  bondage  of  social 
errors  and  evils;  for  spiritual  freedom  and  individual  aims. 
To  flow  with  the  current  is  easy;  a  chip  can  do  that,  but  a 
man  ought  to  be  able  to  stem  the  tide  when  necessary.  Put 
your  manhood,  your  womanhood,  into  the  world  as  a  spiritual 
force  to  mold,  purify  and  elevate  it.  Go  forth  into  active  life 
with  a  noble  purpose,  and,  attaining  it,  your  achievements 
will  be  of  the  highest  success. 


186  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

AWAIT  THE  ISSUE. 


THOMAS    CARLYLE. 
(This  Selection  is  adapted  from  "Past  and  Present.") 

In  this — God's — world,  with  its  wild,  whirling  eddies  and 
mad,  foam  oceans,  where  men  and  nations  perish  as  if  with- 
out law,  and  judgment  for  an  unjust  thing  is  sternly  de- 
layed, dost  thou  think  that  there  is  therefore  no  justice?  It 
is  what  the  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart.  It  is  what  the  wise, 
in  all  times,  were  wise  because  they  denied,  and  knew  for- 
ever not  to  be.  I  tell  thee  again,  there  is  nothing  else  but 
justice.  One  strong  thing  I  find  here  below:  the  just  thing, 
the  true  thing. 

My  friend,  if  thou  hadst  all  the  artillery  of  Woolwich 
trundling  at  thy  back  in  support  of  an  unjust  thing,  and  in- 
finite bonfires  visibly  waiting  ahead  of  thee  to  blaze  centuries 
long  for  the  victory  on  behalf  of  it,  I  would  advise  thee  to 
call  halt,  to  fling  down  thy  baton,  and  say,  "In  Heaven's 
name,  no!" 

Thy  "success?"  Poor  devil,  what  will  thy  success  amount 
to?  If  the  thing  is  unjust,  thou  hast  not  succeeded;  no,  not 
though  bonfires  blazed  from  north  to  south,  and  bells  rang, 
and  editors  wrote  leading  articles,  and  the  just  things  lay 
tramped  out  of  sight — to  all  mortal  eyes  an  abolished  and 
annihilated  thing. 

For  it  is  the  right  and  noble  alone  that  will  have  victory 
in  this  struggle;  the  rest  is  wholly  an  obstruction,  a  post- 
ponement, a  fearful  imperilment  of  the  victory.  Towards  an 
eternal  center  of  right  and  nobleness,  and  of  that  only,  is  all 
confusion  tending.  We  already  know  whither  it  is  all  tend- 
ing; what  will  have  victory,  what  will  have  none!  The 
heaviest  will  reach  the  center.  The  heaviest  has  its  deflec- 
tions; its  obstructions;  nay,  at  times  its  reboundings,  its  re- 
siliences, whereupon  some  blockhead  shall  be  heard  jubilating, 
"See,  your  heaviest  ascends!"  but  at  all  moments  it  is  moving 
center  ward,  fast  as  is  convenient  for  it;  sinking,  sinking;  and, 
by  laws  older  than  the  world,  old  as  the  Maker's  first  plan  of 
the  world,  it  has  to  arrive  there. 

Await  the  issue.  In  all  battles,  if  you  await  the  issue,  each 
fighter  has  prospered  according  to  his  right.  His  right  and 


THOMAS^CARLYLE.  187 

his  might,  at  the  close  of  the  account,  were  one  and  the 
same.  He  has  fought  with  all  his  might,  and  in  exact  propor- 
tion to  all  his  right  he  has  prevailed.  His  very  death  is  no 
victory  over  him.  He  dies  indeed;  but  his  work  lives,  very 
truly  lives. 

A  heroic  Wallace,  quartered  on  the  scaffold,  cannot  hinder 
that  his  Scotland  become,  one  day,  a  part  of  England;  but  he 
does  hinder  that  it  become,  on  tyrannous  terms,  a  part  of 
it;  commands  still,  as  with  a  god's  voice,  from  his  old  Val- 
halla and  Temple  of  the  Brave,  that  there  be  a  just,  real  union 
as  of  brother  and  brother,  not  a  false  and  merely  semblant  one 
as  of  slave  and  master.  If  the  union  with  England  be  in  fact 
one  of  Scotland's  chief  blessings,  we  thank  Wallace  withal 
that  it  was  not  the  chief  curse.  Scotland  is  not  Ireland:  no, 
because  brave  men  rose  there  and  said,  "Behold,  ye  must  not 
tread  us  down  like  slaves;  and  ye  shall  not,  and  cannot!" 

Fight  on,  thou  brave,  true  heart,  and  falter  not,  through 
dark  fortune  and  through  bright.  The  cause  thou  fightest 
for,  so  far  as  it  is  true,  no  further,  yet  precisely  so  far,  is 
very  sure  of  victory.  The  falsehood  alone  of  it  will  be  con- 
quered, will  be  abolished,  as  it  ought  to  be;  but  the  truth  of 
it  is  part  of  Nature's  own  laws,  co-operates  with  the  world's 
eternal  tendencies,  and  cannot  be  conquered. 


188  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

EULOGY  OF  HON.  ISMAM  Q.  HARRIS. 


(Late  a  Senator  from  Tennessee.) 

HON.     HORACE    CHILTON,     OF    TEXAS. 

(Extract  from  a  Memorial  address,   in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,   March  24,   1898.) 

While  I  did  not  know  Senator  Harris  with  the  intimacy  of 
long  personal  association,  I  have  since  a  boy  been  familiar 
with  his  writings,  speeches,  and  public  conduct. 

The  State  in  which  I  live  has  been  supplied  abundantly  from 
the  great  State  of  Tennessee.  Many  of  our  best  citizens  emi- 
grated to  Texas  from  that  commonwealth;  and  I  have  noticed 
that  they  all  seem  to  know  and  to  love  Isham  G.  Harris. 

When  I  first  saw  him,  in  1891,  he  was  well-ripened  and 
probably  at  his  best.  I  picture  him  as  he  would 
come  into  the  Senate  Chamber.  There,  in  his  famil- 
iar place  on  the  right  of  the  Vice-President,  in  the 
front  row,  he  would  take  his  seat.  He  hardly  seems 
to  say  anything  as  if  by  previous  design.  He  seems  never 
to  make  an  occasion,  but  to  find  it  in  the  current  proceedings 
as  set  on  foot  by  others.  He  seems  to  spy  out  that  something 
is  taking  an  irregular  direction  that  he  must  set  right. 
He  first  asks  a  question  or  calls  for  the  reading  of  some 
document,  as  if  he  imperfectly  understood  it.  Then  he  pro- 
ceeds to  clear  up  all  doubts.  First  emphasis,  then  gesticula- 
tion— no,  not  in  succession,  but  an  indescribable  combination 
of  emphasis  and  gesticulation. 

Senator  Harris  was  one  of  the  few  men  of  whom  the  peo- 
ple never  seemed  to  tire.  He  was  the  hero  not  only  of  Ten- 
nessee but  of  Tennesseeans  scattered  throughout  the  Union. 
He  grew,  in  their  estimation,  to  be  a  sort  of  lineal  successor 
to  Andrew  Jackson.  His  name  and  life  and  peculiarities  al- 
ways touched  their  enthusiasm. 

To  me  the  most  impressive  thing  in  his  strong  individuality 
was  his  willingness  always  to  take  responsibility  and  his  abso- 
lute unconcern  about  results — that  cheerful  faith  that  the 
right  will  take  care  of  itself  and  that  there  need  be  no 
anxiety  on  the  part  of  a  public  man  except  the  anxiety  to  be 
right. 


HORACE   CHILTON.  189 

I  have  seen  men  whom  God  had  blessed  with  conscience  and 
courage,  but  not  with  equanimity,  so  that,  knowing  the  truth 
and  voting  the  truth,  they  were  still  nervous  that  they  should 
not  be  misunderstood  and  fidgeting  about  consequences  which 
they  were  determined  to  face. 

Not  so  with  Senator  Harris.  He  seemed  to  think  that  a 
man  who  acted  truly  upon  his  convictions  of  right  held  an  ab- 
solute insurance  policy  against  all  disaster  at  the  hands  of  the 
people.  What  a  great  life  may  be  worked  out  on  that  sort  ot 
logic!  You  may  put  a  small  man  in  Congress,  and  if  he  looks 
at  every  question  as  it  arises  with  a  heart  single  and  an  eye 
single  to  finding  out  the  right,  in  a  few  years  such  a  dig- 
nity will  be  given  to  his  apparent  mediocrity  that  he  will 
gradually  emerge  above  the  level  of  his  fellows  and  assume 
a  consideration  in  the  country  which  will  make  men  wonder 
at  the  secret  of  his  rise.  If  men  of  moderate  mind  can  be 
thus  lifted  by  the  practice  of  simple  straightforwardness,  how 
splendid  becomes  the  principle  when  it  acts  on  a  man  of  na- 
tive intellectual  power  and  force  of  character!  This  was  the 
combination  in  the  case  of  Isham  G.  Harris.  He  was  always 
clear,  always  firm,  always  true,  always  great. 


190  MODERN   AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

THE  CONSERVATIVE  FORCE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAR. 


RUFUS  CHOATB. 

There  are  reasons  without  number  why  we  should  love  and 
honor  our  noble  profession,  and  be  grateful  for  the  necessity, 
or  felicity,  or  accident  which  called  us  to  its  service. 

But  of  these  there  is  one  which  ought  to  be  uppermost 
in  every  lawyer's  mind  on  which  he  cannot  dwell  too  thought- 
fully and  too  anxiously;  and  that  reason  is,  that  better  than 
any  other,  or  as  well  as  any  other  position  or  business,  his 
profession  enables  him  to  serve  the  State;  enables  and  com- 
mands him  to  perform  certain  grand  and  difficult  and  indis- 
pensable duties  of  patriotism — certain  grand,  difficult  and  in- 
dispensable duties  to  our  endeared  and  common  native  land. 

It  is  not  at  all  because  the  legal  profession  may  be  thought 
to  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  fit  a  man  for  what  is  technically 
called  "public  life,"  and  to  afford  him  a  ready  introduction 
to  it,  that  I  maintain  the  sentiment  that  I  have  advanced; 
it  is  not  by  enabling  its  members  to  leave  it  and  become  the 
members  of  a  distinct  profession  that  it  serves  the  State;  it  is 
not  the  jurist  turned  statesman,  whom  I  mean  to  hold  up 
to  you  as  useful  to  the  republic— although  jurists  turned 
statesmen  have  illustrated  every  page,  every  year  of  our 
annals,  and  have  taught  how  admirably  the  school  of  law 
can  train  the  mind  and  heart  for  the  service  of  constitutional 
liberty  and  the  achievement  of  civil  honor;  it  is  not  the  jurist 
turned  statesman;  it  is  the  jurist  as  jurist;  the  jurist  remain- 
ing jurist;  it  is  the  bench,  the  magistracy,  the  bar;  the  pro- 
fession as  a  profession,  and  its  professional  character;  a  class, 
a  body,  of  which  I  mean  exclusively  to  speak;  and  my  posi- 
tion is,  that  as  such  it  holds,  or  may  aspire  to  hold  a  place, 
and  perform  a  function  of  peculiar  and  vast  usefulness  to  the 
American  commonwealth. 

It  may  be  said  of  the  profession  of  the  Bar,  that  in  all  politi- 
cal systems,  and  in  all  times  it  has  seemed  to  possess  a  two- 
fold nature;  that  it  has  seemed  to  be  fired  by  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  and  yet  to  hold  fast  the  sentiments  of  order  and 
reverence  and  the  duty  of  subordination;  that  it  has  resisted 
despotism,  and  yet  taught  obedience;  that  it  has  recognized 


RUFUS   CHOATE.  191 

and  vindicated  the  rights  of  man,  and  yet  has  reckoned  it 
always  among  the  most  sacred  and  most  precious  of  those 
rights,  to  be  shielded  and  led  by  the  divine  nature  and  im- 
mortal reason  of  law;  that  it  appreciates  social  progression, 
and  contributes  to  it,  yet  evermore  counsels  and  courts  perm- 
anence and  conservatism  and  rest;  that  it  loves  light  better 
than  darkness,  and  yet,  like  the  eccentric  or  wise  man  in 
the  old  historian,  has  the  habit  of  looking  away,  as  the 
night  wanes,  to  the  western  sky,  to  detect  there  the  first 
streaks  of  returning  dawn. 

I  know  that  this  is  high  praise  of  the  professional  charac- 
ter; and  it  is  true.  See  if  there  is  not  some  truth  in  it. 
See  at  least  whether  we  may  not  deserve  it,  by  a  careful 
culture  of  the  intrinsical  tendencies  of  our  habitual  studies 
and  employments,  and  all  that  is  peculiar  to  our  professional 
life. 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


GEORGE  T.   WINSTON. 

(From  an  address  at  the  annual  Commencement  of  the  University 
of  Texas,  June,  1896.) 

Great  is  the  commonwealth  whose  foundations  are  liberty 
and  learning,  where  every  child  is  blessed  with  instruction 
and  every  man  is  clothed  with  citizenship;  where  popular  sov- 
ereignty rests  securely  on  the  firni  basis  of  popular  education. 
A  commonwealth  thus  planted  in  the  bleak  coast  of  Massa- 
chusetts grew  rich  and  strong  in  educated  labor  and  labor- 
saving  machinery. 

To  the  southward  another  colony  was  planted.  Its  basis 
was  not  universal  education.  Its  leaders  were  heroes  and 
giants  in  intellect  and  character.  They  planted  a  common- 
wealth unequaled  in  modern  times  for  the  patriotism,  learn- 
ing and  virtue  of  its  public  men,  for  the  beauty,  purity  and 
grace  of  its  women,  for  the  matchless  eloquence  of  its  orators, 
for  the  fortitude  and  gallantry  of  its  soldiers,  and  for  uncon- 
querable devotion  to  personal  liberty  and  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. It  was  an  agricultural  colony,  of  strong  and  sim- 


192  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

pie  life,  without  cities,  without  factories,  with  little  com- 
merce. Its  character  was  patriarchal  and  its  power  proceed- 
ed not  from  the  mass  of  the  people,  but  from  their  mighty 
leaders.  It  did  not  comprehend  the  power  of  universal  edu- 
cation. Between  this  colony  and  the  one  north  began  a  strug- 
gle for  the  possession  of  the  continent.  That  struggle,  though 
colored  by  sectional  prejudice  and  apparently  political,  was, 
in  its  essence,  industrial.  It  was  a  struggle  of  the  free,  edu- 
cated labor  of  the  North  against  the  uneducated,  slave  labor 
of  the  South.  But  the  struggle  was  unequal;  the  educated 
free  labor  of  New  England,  mounted  upon  the  steam  engine, 
traveled  faster  and  wrought  greater  labors  than  the  Southern 
planter,  carrying  upon  his  back  the  negro  slave.  The  strug- 
gle closed  at  Appomattox,  where  the  South  cast  off  the  bur- 
den of  slavery  and  began  her  future  development  on  the  basis 
of  universal  manhood  and  educated  labor. 

"The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  the  new, 
And  God  fulfilled  himself  in  many  ways 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 
The  age  in  which  we  live  makes  universal  education  a  na- 
tional necessity.  Never  was  life  more  complex  and  exacting, 
never  was  human  achievement  more  varied  and  wonderful. 
Man  has  bridled  the  moon  like  an  ox  and  harnessed  to  the 
plow  the  thunderbolts  of  Jove.  The  solitary  student  in  his 
study  plans  campaigns,  captures  cities  and  overthrows  em- 
pires. The  eye  of  the  pale  professor  penetrates  wood  and 
photographs  the  bones  of  the  unborn  babe.  Time  and  space 
are  annihilated.  The  earth  is  girded  with  ribs  of  steel  and 
electric  wires  flash  speech  around  the  globe  swifter  than  the 
voices  of  the  morning.  Power  so  mighty  was  never  wielded 
by  the  gods  of  Olympus.  The  world  is  growing  smaller.  Place 
your  ear  upon  the  wire  and  hear  its  pulse  beating  clearer  and 
louder.  "Ignorance  is  no  longer  a  vacuum  void  of  knowledge; 
it  is  a  plenum  of  errors,  bringing  unhappiness  to  the  individ- 
ual and  danger  to  the  state." 

But  where  is  there  greater  need  of  universal  education  than 
in  the  South?  Here  an  ancient  system  has  been  overthrown 
and  new  problems  of  tremendous  moment  have  been  added 
to  those  that  confront  the  rest  of  the  nation.  Problems  of  a 
magnitude  surpassing  those  ever  presented  to  any  people  be- 
fore now  confront  the  people  of  the  South.  The  South  will 


GEORGE  T.    WINSTON.  193 

prove  equal  to  their  solution.  When  we  consider 
how  manfully  she  has  struggled  and  how  nobly  she 
has  advanced,  though  freighted  down  with  the  burden 
of  slavery  and  popular  ignorance,  can  we  doubt  that  an- 
other century  will  see  her  strengthened  by  universal  educa- 
tion, rich  in  her  own  resources,  strong  in  diversified  and  intel- 
ligent agriculture,  still  expanding  in  commerce  and  manufac- 
tures, crowded  with  school  houses  and  colleges  and  univer- 
sities? Can  we  doubt  that  she  will  again  lead  the  nation  in 
peace  and  in  war?  Can  we  doubt  that  Washington,  and  Jef- 
ferson, and  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and  Jackson  will  live  again 
in  unborn  statesmen  and  heroes,  who  will  wisely  shape  the 
larger  destinies  of  a  larger  nation? 


TWO  SPIES. 


CHAUNCBY   M.    DEPEW. 

(From  an   oration   delivered  at   Tarrytown,   N.   Y.,   September  23, 

1880,    on   the    occasion   of   the    Centennial    Celebration 

of  the  capture  of  Major  Andre.) 

The  story  of  Major  Andre  is  the  one  overmastering  romance 
of  the  Revolution.  American  and  English  literature  are  full 
of  eloquence  and  poetry  in  tribute  to  his  memory  and  sym- 
pathy for  his  fate.  After  the  lapse  of  a  hundred  years  there 
is  no  abatement  in  absorbing  interest.  What  had  this  young 
man  done  to  merit  immortality?  The  mission  whose  tragic 
end  lifted  him  out  of  the  oblivion  of  other  minor  British  offi- 
cers of  his  time  was  in  its  inception  free  from  peril  and  dan- 
ger and  its  objects  and  purposes  were  utterly  infamous.  Had 
he  succeeded  by  the  desecration  of  the  honorable  uses  of 
passes  and  flags  of  truce  his  name  would  have  been  held  in 
everlasting  execration.  In  his  failure  the  infant  republic  es- 
caped the  dagger  with  which  he  was  feeling  for  its  heart  and 
the  crime  was  drowned  in  tears  of  regret  for  his  untimely  end. 
His 'youth  and  beauty,  his  skill  with  pen  and  pencil,  the  sweet- 
ness of  his  life,  his  early  love  and  disappointment,  his  calm 
courage  in  the  gloomy  hour  of  death,  surrounded  him  with 
a  halo  of  poetry  and  pity  which  have  secured  for  him  what 


194  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

he  most  desired,  and  yet  what  he  could  never  have  won  by 
his  own  efforts  in  siege  or  in  battle — a  fame  and  recognition 
which  have  far  outclassed  that  of  the  generals  under  whom  he 
served. 

But  are  kings  alone  grateful,  and  do  republics  forget?  Is 
fame  a  travesty  and  the  judgment  of  mankind  a  farce?  Amer- 
ica had  a  parallel  case  in  Captain  Nathan  Hale.  Of  the  same 
age  as  Andre,  he  graduated  at  Yale  with  high  honors,  enlisted 
in  the  patriot  cause  in  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  and  soon 
won  the  love  and  admiration  of  all  around  him.  When  no 
one  would  go  on  a  most  important  and  perilous  mission  he 
volunteered  and  was  captured  by  the  British.  While  Andre 
received  every  kindness  and  courtesy  and  attention  and  was 
fed  from  Washington's  own  table,  Hale  was  cast  into  the  dun- 
geon beneath  the  sugar  house.  While  Andre  was  given  an 
honorable  trial  before  a  board  of  judges,  Hale  was  summarily 
ordered  to  the  execution  next  morning.  While  Andre's  last 
wishes  and  behests  were  sacredly  followed  out,  the  infamous 
Cunningham  tore  from  Hale  his  cherished  Bible,  destroyed 
his  last  letters  to  his  mother  and  sister  before  his  very  eyes, 
and  then  asked  him  what  he  had  to  say.  "All  I  have  to  say," 
replied  Hale,  "is  that  I  regret  that  I  have  but  one 
life  to  lose  for  my  country."'  His  death  was  con- 
cealed for  months,  because  Cunningham  said  he  didn't  want 
the  rebels  to  know  that  they  had  a  man  who  could  die  so 
bravely.  And  yet,  while  Andre  rests  in  that  grandest  of  mau- 
soleums, where  the  proudest  of  nations  garners  the  remains 
and  perpetuates  the  memory  of  its  most  illustrious  and  cher- 
ished children,  the  name  and  deeds  of  Nathan  Hale  have 
passed  into  oblivion,  and  a  simple  stone  in  a  country  church- 
yard is  all  that  marks  the  last  resting  place  of  our  hero. 

The  dying  declarations  of  these  two  men  give  us  the  ani- 
mating spirits  of  their  several  armies  and  show  us  why  Eng- 
land with  all  her  power  could  not  conquer  America.  "I  call 
you  to  witness  that  I  die  like  a  brave  man,"  said  Andre,  and 
he  spoke  from  British  and  Hessian  surroundings,  desirous 
only  of  self-glory  and  pay.  "I  regret  that  I  have  Dut  one  life 
to  lose  for  my  country,"  said  Hale,  and  with  him  and  his 
comrades  self  was  forgotten  in  that  absorbing,  passionate 
struggle,  which  pledged  fortune,  honor  and  life  to  the  sacred 
cause. 


CHAUNCEY    M.   DEPEW.  195 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HAPPINESS. 


CHAUNCEY   M.    DEPEW. 

(From   an  after-dinner  speech  at  Brooklyn,   N.   Y.,  April  23,  1900, 

the  occasion  being  a  dinner  given  Mr.   Depew   in 

ihonor  of  his  birthday.) 

Society  is  a  sort  of  trust  for  mutual  enjoyment.  Every 
stockholder  must  contribute  something  to  the  general  pleas- 
ure. Cynical  sneers  or  platitudinous  preachings  have  never 
affected  it  and  never  will.  People  want  to  be  happy,  and  all 
forms  of  association  and  pleasant  activity  which  are  free  from 
immorality  or  bad  breeding  are  part  of  the  good  things  which 
in  various  ways,  adaptable  to  their  years,  smooth  the  path- 
ways of  life  for  childhood,  youth,  maturity  and  old  age. 

The  expanding  intelligence  which  comes  from  contact  with 
as  many  sides  as  possible  of  the  diversified  world  gives  ex- 
quisite pleasure,  prolongs  life,  and  doubles  and  trebles  each 
year  by  the  good  things  which  are  enjoyed  in  It,  so  that  at 
sixty  we  have,  compared  with  the  dullards  and  drones,  equaled 
the  ages  of  Methuselah  and  hie  contemporaries. 

I  recall  a  man  of  many  millions  whose  career  was  concen- 
trated on  accumulation.  He  was  a  power  in  his  way  and  its 
exercise  was  his  sole  enjoyment.  The  club,  society,  the  fes- 
tive gatherings  where  all  are  equal  and  human,  and  public  ac- 
tivities, knew  him  not.  There  were  neither  regrets  nor  tears 
at  his  grave.  I  heard  his  relatives  discussing  behind  the 
backs  of  their  mourning  hands  the  extent  of  his  wealth  and 
its  disposition,  and  the  poor  relation  whispered  to  her  neigh- 
bor while  all  heads  were  bowed  in  prayer:  "I  hope  he  has 
remembered  all  his  family.  He  had  such  a  lot."  His  life  was 
mud.  I  tried  in  vain  to  check  or  guide  a  youth  of  large  for- 
tune who  sought  what  he  thought  was  pleasure  in  the  ex- 
cesses of  every  dissipation  which  money  can  buy  and  was 
a  physical,  moral  and  intellectual  wreck  before  he  learned 
that  true  pleasure  leaves  neither  sting  nor  pain.  I  knew  a 
genius  whom  God  had  endowed  with  the  faculty  for  fame  and 
large  contributions  to  the  happiness  and  knowledge  of  his 
fellow  men.  He  became  the  slave  of  drink.  He  squandered 
gifts  of  more  value  than  the  wealth  of  the  world.  Bankrupt 


196  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

in  mind,  in  position  and  in  friends,  he  died  as  the  fool  dieth. 
I  stood  beside  a  glorious  good  fellow  in  his  last  hours.  He 
had  been  fairly  successful  in  his  profession,  had  filled  public 
office  creditably  and  been  a  daring  and  brilliant  soldier  in  the 
civil  war  and  won  repeated  promotions  on  the  field  of  battle. 
He  was  the  life  of  every  social  gathering,  and  his  money,  when 
he  had  any,  and  his  time  were  at  the  service  of  the  cause  of 
patriotism  or  charity  or  the  assistance  of  a  friend  in  distress. 
At  the  ebb  of  the  tide  he  left  his  friends  this  message.  "The 
world  owes  me  nothing.  I  have  got  out  of  life  all  there  is 
in  it" 

We  all,  I  trust,  reverently  bow  to  the  spiritual  duties  of  life. 
But  this  occasion  is  not  a  pulpit.  The  work-a-day  problems 
of  rest  and  labor,  of  recreation  with  and  in  spite  of  worry 
and  work,  are  the  thought  of  this  hour.  After  the  peace  of 
the  little  prayer  we  learned  and  repeated  at  our  mother's  knee 
and  become  children  again  in  its  nightly  iteration  may  we 
be  able  ere  sleep  comes  to  face  the  world  at  the  close  of  each 
day  and  say  with  my  gallant  friend,  "Dear  old  world,  you 
have  treated  me  fair;  you  owe  me  nothing.  I  have  got  out 
of  life  all  there  is  in  it." 


EXPERT  KNOWLEDGE. 


CHARLES   WILLIAM   ELIOT, 
(President  of  Harvard  University.) 

(Prom   an   address    on    "The   Function   of   Education   in   a  Demo- 
cratic Society.") 

As  an  outcome  of  successful  democratic  education  certain 
habits  of  thought  should  be  well  established  in  the  mind  of 
every  child.  In  some  small  field  each  child  should  acquire  'a 
capacity  for  exact  observation,  and  as  a  natural  result  of  this 
acquirement  it  should  come  to  admire  and  respect  exact  ob- 
servation in  all  fields.  Again,  in  some  small  field  it  should 
acquire  the  capacity  for  exact  description,  and  a  respect  for 
exact  description  in  all  fields.  And,  lastly,  it  should  attain, 
within  the  limited  range  of  its  experience  and  observation,  the 
power  to  draw  a  justly  limited  inference  from  observed  facts. 


CHARLES  WM.   ELIOT.  197 

Any  one  who  has  attained  to  the  capacity  for  exact  observa- 
tion and  exact  description,  and  knows  what  it  is  to  draw  a 
correct  inference  from  weii-deierinined  premises,  wili  natural- 
ly acquire  a  respect  for  these  powers  when  exhibited  by  others 
in  fields  unknown  to  him.  Moreover,  any  one  who  has  learned 
how  hard  it  is  to  determine  a  fact,  to  state  it  accurately  and 
to  draw  from  it  the  justly  limited  inference,  will  De  sure  that 
he  himself  cannot  do  tnese  things  except  in  a  very  limited  fieid. 
He  will  know  that  his  own  personal  activity  must  be  limited 
to  a  few  subjects  if  his  capacity  is  to  be  really  excellent  in 
any.  He  will  be  sure  that  the  too  common  belief  that  a  Yan- 
kee can  turn  his  hand  to  anything  is  a  mischievous  delusion. 
Having,  as  the  result  of  his  education,  some  vision  of  the 
great  range  of  knowledge  and  capacity  needed  in  the  business 
of  the  world,  he  will  respect  the  trained  capacities  which  he 
sees  developed  in  great  diversity  in  other  people.  In  short, 
he  will  come  to  respect  and  confide  in  the  expert  in  every  field 
of  human  activity.  Confidence  in  experts,  and  willingness  to 
employ  them  and  abide  by  their  decisions,  are  among  the 
best  signs  of  intelligence  in  an  educated  individual  or  an  ed- 
ucated community;  and  in  any  democracy  which  is  to  thrive 
this  respect  and  confidence  must  be  felt  strongly  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  population. 

The  democracy  must  learn,  in  governmental  affairs,  wheth- 
er municipal,  state  or  national,  to  employ  experts  and  abide 
by  their  decisions.  Such  complicated  subjects  as  taxation, 
finance  and  public  works  cannot  be  wisely  managed  by  pop- 
ular assemblies  or  their  committees  or  by  executive  officers 
who  have  no  special  acquaintance  with  these  most  difficult 
subjects.  American  experience  during  the  last  twenty  years 
demonstrates  that  popular  assemblies  have  become  absolutely 
incapable  of  dealing  wisely  with  any  of  these  great  subjects. 
Legislators  and  executives  are  changed  so  frequently  under 
the  American  system  of  local  representation  that  few  gain 
anything  that  deserves  to  be  called  experience  in  legislation 
or  administration,  while  the  few  who  serve  long  terms  are 
apt  to  be  so  absorbed  in  the  routine  work  of  carrying  on  the 
government  and  managing  the  party  interests  that  they  have 
no  time  either  for  thorough  research  or  for  invention.  Under 
present  conditions  neither  expert  knowledge  nor  intellectual 
leadership  can  reasonably  be  expected  of  them.  Democracies 


198  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

will  not  be  safe  until  the  population  has  learned  that  gov- 
ernmental affairs  must  be  conducted  on  the  same  principles 
on  which  successful  private  and  corporate  business  is  con- 
ducted, and  therefore  it  should  be  one  of  the  principles  and 
objects  of  democratic  education  so  to  train  the  minds  of  the 
children  that  when  they  become  adult  they  shall  have  within 
their  own  experience  the  grounds  of  respect  for  the  attain- 
ments of  experts  in  every  branch  of  governmental,  industrial 
and  social  activity  and  of  confidence  in  their  advice. 


SELF-RELIANCE. 


RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON. 

(By  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  authorized  publishers 
of  Emerson's  Works.) 

There  is  a  time  in  every  man's  experience  when  he  arrives 
at  the  conclusion  that  envy  is  ignorance;  that  imitation  is 
suicide;  that  he  must  take  himself  for  better,  for  worse,  as 
his  portion;  that,  though  the  wide  universe  is  full  of  good, 
no  kernel  of  nourishing  corn  can  come  to  him  but  through 
his  toil  bestowed  on  that  plot  of  ground  which  is  given  him 
to  till.  The  power  which  resides  in  him  is  new  in  nature 
and  none  but  he  knows  what  that  is  which  he  can  do,  nor 
does  he  know  until  he  has  tried.  Therefore  my  text  is,  Trust 
thyself.  Is  it  not  an  iron  string  to  which  vibrates  every 
heart? 

What  I  must  do  is  all  that  concerns  me,  not  what  people 
think.  It  is  easy  to  live  in  the  world  after  the  world's  opin- 
ion; it  is  easy  in  solitude  to  live  after  your  own;  but  the 
great  man  is  he  who  in  the  midst  of  the  turmoil  of  the  crowd 
keeps  with  perfect  sweetness  the  independence  of  solitude. 

The  objection  to  conforming  to  usages  that  have  become 
dead  to  you  is  that  it  scatters  your  force.  It  loses  your  time 
and  blurs  the  impression  of  your  character.  If  you  maintain 
a  dead  church,  contribute  to  a  dead  Bible  society,  vote  with  a 
great  party  either  for  the  government  or  against  it,  spread 
your  table  like  base  housekeepers — under  all  these  screens  I 
have  difficulty  to  detect  the  precise  man  you  are.  But  do 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON.  19 

your  work  and  I  shall  know  you.     Do  your  work  and  you 
shall  re-enforce  yourself. 

The  other  terror  which  scares  us  from  self-trust  is  our  con- 
sistency; a  reverence  for  our  past  act  or  word,  because  the 
eyes  of  others  have  no  other  data  for  computing  our  orbit 
than  our  past  acts,  and  we  are  loth  to  disappoint-  them.  A. 
foolish  consistency  is  the  hobgoblin  of  little  minds,  adored  by 
little  statesmen  and  philosophers  and  divines.  With  consist- 
ency a  great  soul  has  simply  nothing  to  do!  He  may  as  well 
concern  himself  with  his  shadow  on  the  wall.  Speak  what 
you  think — to  be  great  is  to  be  misunderstood. 

Insist  on  yourself;  never  imitate.  Your  own  gift  you  can 
present  every  moment  with  the  cumulative  force  of  a  whole 
life's  cultivation;  but  of  the  adopted  talent  or  another  you 
have  only  an  extemporaneous,  half  possession.  That  which 
each  can  do  best  none  but  his  maker  can  teach  him.  Where  is 
the  master  who  could  have,  taught  Shakespeare?  Where  is  the 
master  who  could  have  instructed  Franklin,  or  Washington, 
or  Bacon,  or  Newton?  Every  great  man  is  unique.  Shakes- 
peare will  never  be  made  by  the  study  of  Shakespeare.  Do 
that  which  is  assigned  to  you  and  you  cannot  hope  too  much 
or  dare  too  much.  There  is  at  this  moment  for  you  an  utter- 
ance brave  and  grand  as  that  of  the  colossal  chisel  of  Phidias, 
or  trowel  of  the  Egyptians,  or  the  pen  of  Moses  or  Dante,  but 
different  from  all  of  these.  Abide  in  the  simple  and  noble  re- 
gions of  thy  life,  obey  thy  heart,  and  thou  shalt  reproduce 
the  master  works  of  the  world  again. 


200  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


FOUNDATION  OF  NATIONAL  CHARACTER. 


EDWARD  EVERETT. 

How  is  the  spirit  of  a  free  people  to  be  formed,  and  ani- 
mated, and  cheered,  but  out  of  the  store-house  of  its  own  his- 
toric recollections?  Are  we  to  be  eternallj  ringing  the 
changes  upon  Marathon  and  Thermopylae  and  going  back  to 
read  in  obscure  texts  of  Greek,  and  Latin  of  the  exemplars 
of  patriotic  virtue?  I  thank  God  that  we  can  find  them  nearer 
home,  in  our  own  country,  on  our  own  soil — that  strains  of 
the  noblest  sentiment  that  ever  swelled  in  the  breast  of  man 
are  breathing  to  us  out  of  every  page  of  our  country's  history 
in  the  native  eloquence  of  our  mother  tongue;  that  the  colo- 
nial and  provincial  councils  of  American  exhibit  to  us  models 
of  the  spirit  and  character  which  gave  Greece  and  Rome  their 
name  and  their  praise  among  the  nations.  Here  we  ought  to 
go  for  our  instruction;  the  lesson  is  plain,  it  is  clear,  it  is 
applicable.  When  we  go  to  ancient  history  we  are  bewildered 
with  the  difference  of  manners  and  institutions.  We  are  will- 
ing to  pay  our  tribute  of  applause  to  the  memory  of  Leonidas, 
who  fell  nobly  for  his  country  in  the  face  of  his  foe.  But 
when  we-  trace  him  to  his  home  we  are  confounded  at  the 
reflection  that  the  same  Spartan  heroism  to  which  he  sacri- 
ficed himself  at  Thermopylae  would  have  led  him  to  tear  his 
own  child,  if  it  had  happened  to  be  a  sickly  babe — the  very 
object  for  which  all  that  is  kind  and  good  in  man  rises  up  to 
plead — from  the  bosom  of  its  mother,  and  carry  it  out  to  be 
eaten  by  the  wolves  of  Taygetus.  We  feel  a  glow  of  admira- 
tion at  the  heroism  displayed  at  Marathon  by  the  ten  thousand 
champions  of  invaded  Greece;  but  we  cannot  forget  that  the 
tenth  part  of  the  number  were  slaves,  unchained  from  the 
workshop  and  doorpost  of  their  masters,  to  go  and  fight  the 
battles  of  freedom.  I  do  not  mean  that  these  examples  are 
to  destroy  the  interest  with  which  we  read  the  history  of  an- 
cient times;  they  possibly  increase  that  interest  by  the  very 
contrast  they  exhibit.  But  they  do  warn  us,  if  we  heed  the 
warning,  to  seek  our  great  practical  lessons  of  patriotism  at 
home,  out  of  the  exploits  and  sacrifices  of  which  our  own 
country  is  the  theater,  out  of  the  characters  of  our  own  fa- 


EDWARD  EVERETT.  201 

thers.  Them  we  know— the  high-souled,  natural,  unaffected, 
the  citizen  heroes.  We  know  what  happy  firesides  they  left 
for  the  cheerless  camp.  We  know  with  what  pacific  habits 
they  dared  the  perils  of  the  field.  There  is  110  mystery,  no 
romance,  no  madness,  under  the  name  of  chivalry,  about  them. 
It  is  all  resolute,  manly  resistance,  for  conscience  and  liberty's 
sake,  not  merely  of  an  overwhelming  power,  but  of  all  the 
force  of  long-rooted  habits  and  native  love  of  order  and 
peace. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  GREEK  CIVILIZATION. 


W.    J.   FOX. 

From  the  dawn  of  intellect  and  freedom  Greece  has  been 
a  watchword  on  the  earth.  There  rose  the  social  spirit  to 
soften  and  refine  her  chosen  race  and  shelter  as  in  a  nest  her 
gentleness  from  the  rushing  storm  of  barbarism;  there  liberty 
first  built  her  mountain  throne,  first  called  the  waves  her  own, 
and  shouted  across  them  a  proud  defiance  to  despotism's  band- 
ed myriads;  there  the  arts  and  graces  danced  around  human- 
ity and  stored  man's  home  with  comforts  and  strewed  his  path 
with  roses  and  bound  his  brows  with  myrtle  and  fashioned 
for  him  the  breathing  statue  and  summoned  him  to  temples 
of  snowy  marble  and  charmed  his  senses  with  all  forms  of 
eloquence  and  threw  over  his  final  sleep  their  veil  of  loveli- 
ness; there  sprung  poetry,  like  their  own  fabled  goddess,  ma- 
ture at  once  from  the  teeming  intellect,  gilt  with  arts  and 
armor  that  defy  the  assaults  of  time  and  subdue  the  heart  of 
man;  here  matchless  orators  gave  the  world  a  model  of  per- 
fect eloquence,  the  soul  the  instrument  on  which  they  played, 
and  every  passion  of  our  nature  but  a  tone  which  the  mas- 
ter's touch  called  forth  at  will;  there  lived  and  taught  the 
philosophers  of  bower  and  porch,  of  pride  and  pleasure,  of 
deep  speculation  and  of  useful  action,  who  developed  all  the 
acutenesF?  and  refinement  and  excursiveness  and  energy  of 
mind,  and  were  the  glory  of  their  country  when  their  country 
was  the  glory  of  the  earth. 


202  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  AMERICAN  CITIZENS. 

SENATOR   WM.    P.    FRYE,    OF   MAINE. 
(Adapted  from  the  Congressional  Record.) 

We  hear  a  great  deal  of  the  duty  the  citizen  owes  the  gov- 
ernment, and  too  little  of  the  duty  the  government  owes  the 
citizen.  American  citizens  should  be  protected  in  their  life 
and  liberty  wherever  they  may  be  and  at  any  cost. 

I  think  one  of  the  grandest  things  in  the  history  of  Great 
Britain  is  that  she  does  protect  her  citizens  everywhere  and 
anywhere,  under  all  circumstances.  Her  mighty  power  is  put 
forth  for  their  relief  and  protection,  and  it  is  admirable.  I  do 
not  wonder  that  a  British  citizen  loves  his  country. 

About  twenty  years  ago  the  king  of  Abyssinia  took  a  Brit- 
ish citizen  by  the  name  of  Campbell,  carried  him  to  the 
heights  of  a  lofty  mountain,  to  the  fortress  of  Magdala,  and 
put  him  into  a  dungeon  without  cause.  It  took  Great  Britain 
six  months  to  learn  of  that,  and  then  she  demanded  his  im- 
mediate release.  The  king  of  Abyssinia  refused  to  release 
him.  In  less  than  ten  days  after  that  refusal  3,000  British 
soldiers  and  5,000  Sepoys  were  on  board  ships  of  war,  sail- 
ing for  the  coast.  When  they  arrived  they  were  disembarked, 
were  marched  seven  hundred  miles  over  swamps  and  morass, 
under  a  burning  sun,  then  up  the  mountain  to  its  very  heights, 
in  front  of  the  frowning  dungeon,  and  then  they  gave  battle. 
They  battered  down  the  iron  gates,  they  overturned  the  stone 
walls.  Then  they  reached  down  into  that  dungeon  with  an 
English  hand,  lifted  out  from  it  that  one  British  citizen,  took 
him  to  the  coast  and  sped  him  away  on  the  white-winged 
ships  to  his  home  in  safety.  That  expedition  cost  Great  Brit- 
ain $25,000,000. 

Now,  sir,  a  country  that  has  an  eye  that  can  see  across  an 
ocean,  away  across  the  many  miles  of  land,  up  into  the  moun- 
tain heights,  down  into  the  darksome  dungeon,  one,  just  one 
of  her  38,000,000  people,  and  then  has  an  arm  strong  enough 
and  long  enough  to  reach  across  the  same  ocean,  across  the 
same  swamps  and  marshes,  up  the  same  mountain  heights, 
down  into  the  same  dungeon,  and  take  him  out  and  carry 


WM.   P.    FBYE.  203 

him  home  to  his  own  country,  a  free  man — where  will  you 
find  a  man  who  will  not  live  and  die  for  a  country  that  will 
do  that? 

Mr.  President,  our  country  ought  to  do  it.  All  that  I  ask 
of  this  republic  of  ours  is  that  it  shall  model  itself  after 
Great  Britain  in  this  one  thing — that  wherever  the  American 
citizen  may  be,  whether  in  Great  Britain,  Cuba,  Turkey  or 
China,  he  shall  be  perfectly  assured  of  the  fullest  protection 
of  the  American  government. 


A  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  FIRST  CLASS. 


T.   W.   GREGORY, 

(Extract  from  a  speech  at  the  Alumni  Banquet  at  Dallas,   Uni- 
versity of  Texas  Day.   October  21,  1899.) 

Upon  the  walls  of  the  Congressional  Library  at  Washington 
are  engraved  the  digested  wisdom  of  the  world,  and  over  the 
chief  entrance,  written  almost  in  letters  of  light,  is  this  single 
sentence,  embodying  the  experience  and  lesson  of  all  the  ages: 
"The  foundation  of  every  state  is  the  education  of  its  youth." 

I  know  not  whose  tongue  first  uttered  or  whose  pen  first 
traced  these  words,  but  long  before  the  foundation  of  that 
great  building  was  laid  or  its  construction  dreamed  of  the 
framers  of  the  organic  law  of  Texas,  seeking  for  guarantees 
of  blood-bought  human  liberty  and  bulwarks  against  the  as- 
saults of  the  despot  and  the  anarchist,  planted  in  our  consti- 
tution the  mandatory  provision  that  the  legislature  should 
provide  for  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  a  university  of 
the  first  class. 

I  believe  that  I  appreciate  what  these  men  had  in  their 
minds;  I  believe  that  they  conceived  of  a  temple  of  learning 
set  upon  a  hill  where  all  Texas  and  all  the- world  might  come 
and  worship;  I  believe  that  they  conceived  of  a  university 
which  in  equipment,  in  endowment,  in  the  number  of  its  stu- 


204  MODERN   AMERICAN  ^SPEAKER. 

dents  and  the  wisdom  of  its  faculty  would  rank  with  the  best 
of  Europe  or  America;  I  believe  that  they  contemplated  the 
erection  of  an  institution  of  learning  where  the  sons  and 
daughters  oi  Texas,  of  her  farmers  and  her  merchants,  of 
her  mechanics  and  her  bankers,  of  her  hod-carriers  and  her 
lawyers,  might  go,  without  money  and  witnuut  price,  and 
enjoy  all  the  educational  advantages  enjoyed  by  the  sons  of 
the  rich  in  the  greatest  institution  of  the  old  or  new  world; 
and,  finally,  to  sum  up  the  whole  matter,  I  believe  that  by  a 
university  of  the  first  class  they  meant  a  university  second  to 
none. 

If  I  were  asked  to-night  what,  above  all  other  things,  con- 
stitutes a  university  of  the  first  class,  I  would  not  for  one 
moment  hesitate  in  answering:  Splendid  equipment,  gener- 
ous endowment  and  wise  instructors  are  the  accompaniments 
and  characteristics  of  a  great  educational  institution,  but  the 
essential  feature,  without  which  there  can  be  only  failure,  is 
the  scholarship  and  loyalty  of  its  student  body,  past  and 
present. 

Few  of  us  have  the  opportunity  of  reflecting  glory  upon  our 
university  in  distant  states,  but  still  more  important  duties 
are  at  hand;  an  enthusiastic  support  of  her  best  interests  is 
needed  in  Texas  to-day  and  will  be  needed  until  her  great 
mission  is  performed;  if  the  five  hundred  who  sit  before  me 
to-night  should  labor  unceasingly  in  their  rive  hundred 
spheres  of  influence  to  make  her  the  greatest  educational  in- 
stitution of  the  age,  what  wonders  could  be  accomplished!  If 
the  five  thousand  ex-students  scattered  in  every  town  and 
hamlet  of  this  state  should  unite  in  a  common  effort  in  her 
behalf  there  is  no  human  power  which  could  stay  her  on- 
ward march. 

Standing  in  this  splendid  presence  to-night,  clothed  in  the 
enthusiasm  which  comes  up  from  the  greatest  assembly  of 
college-bred  men  and  women  ever  gathered  together  in  the 
Southwest,  I  almost  feel  as  did  the  Hebrew  prophets  of  old, 
when  the  veil  of  the  future  was  rent  in  twain,  and  in  spirit 
they  saw  the  deeds  to  be  done  in  the  flesh.  In  my  imagina- 
tion I  see  a  lofty  hill  crowned  with  innumerable  majestic 
buildings;  I  see  mighty  telescopes  sweeping  the  heavens  from 
lofty  domes  in  search  of  unknown  worlds;  I  see  anthropolo- 
gists revealing  to  the  world  the  pre-historic  civilizations  of 


T.  W.    GREGORY. 


205 


New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  and  tracing  the  footsteps  of  van- 
ished races;  I  see  geologists  and  mineralogists  exploring  the 
waste  places  and  unearthing  every  mine  of  hidden  wealth; 
and,  above  all  things,  I  see  ten  thousand  Texas  boys  and  girls 
bearing  each  year  to  ten  thousand  Texas  homes  the  atmos- 
phere of  higher  education  and  lofty  ideals;  and  I  can  almost 
see,  above  the  countless  domes  and  minarets  and  towers,  the 
spirits  of  the  mighty  dead  lifting  their  hands  in  benediction 
above  the  consummation  of  their  most  cherished  ideals.  This 
is  my  conception  of  a  university  of  the  first  class. 


BUILDING  THE  TEHPLE. 


JOHN  B.   GOUGH. 

The  temperance  cause  is  in  advance  of  public  sentiment, 
and  those  who  carry  it  on  are  glorious  iconoclasts.  Count  me 
over  the  chosen  heroes  of  this  earth  and  I  will  show  you  men 
who  stood  alone — aye,  alone — while  those  they  toiled  and  la- 
bored and  agonized  for  hurled  at  them  contumely,  scorn  and 
contempt.  They  stood  alone;  they  looked  into  the  future 
calmly  and  with  faith;  they  saw  the  golden  beam  inclining 
to  the  side  of  perfect  justice,  and  they  fought  on  amid  the 
storm  of  persecution. 

In  Great  Britain  they  tell  me,  when  I  go  to  visit  such  a  pris- 
on, "Here  is  such  a  dungeon  in  which  such  a  one  was  con- 
fined." "Here  among  the  ruins  of  an  old  castle  we  will  show 
you  where  such  a  one  was  tortured  and  where  another  was 
murdered."  Then  they  will  show  me  monuments  towering  up 
to  the  heavens.  "There  is  a  monument  to  such  a  one;  there 
is  a  monument  to  another."  And  what  do  I  find?  That  one 
generation  persecuted  and  howled  at  these  men,  crying  "Cru- 
cify them!  Crucify  them!"  and  danced  around  the  blazing 


206  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

fagots  that  consumed  them;  and  the  next  generation  busied 
itself  in  gathering  up  the  scattered  ashes  in  the  golden  urn 
of  a  nation's  history. 

The  men  who  adopted  adTanced  principles  were  bitterly 
persecuted.  They  were  hooted  and  pelted  through  the  streets, 
the  doors  of  their  houses  were  blackened,  their  cattle  de- 
stroyed. The  fire  of  persecution  scorched  them  then,  but  I 
should  like  to  stand  where  they  stand  now,  and  see  the 
mighty  enterprise  as  it  rises  before  them.  They  worked  hard. 
They  lifted  the  first  turf,  prepared  the  bed  in  which  to  lay 
the  corner  stone.  They  laid  it  amid  persecution  and  storm. 
They  worked  under  the  surface,  and  men  almost  forgot  that 
there  were  busy  hands  laying  the  solid  foundations  far  down 
beneath.  By  and  by  they  got  the  foundation  above  the  sur- 
face, and  then  commenced  another  storm  of  persecution.  Now 
we  see  the  superstructure — pillar  after  pillar,  tower  after 
tower,  column  after  column.  Old  men  gaze  upon  it  as  it  grows 
up  before  them.  They  will  not  live  to  see  it  completed,  but 
they  see  in  faith  the  crowning  cope-stone  set  upon  it.  Meek- 
eyed  women  weep  as  it  grows  in  beauty;  children  strew  the 
path  of  the  workmen  with  flowers.  We  do  not  see  its  beauty 
yet;  we  do  not  see  the  magnificence  of  its  superstructure  yet, 
because  it  is  in  course  of  erection.  Scaffolding,  ropes,  ladders, 
workmen  ascending  and  descending,  mar  the  beauty  of  the 
building,  but  by  and  by  when  the  hosts  who  have  labored 
shall  come  up  over  a  thousand  battle  fields,  waving  with 
bright  grain  never  again  to  be  crushed  in  the  distillery, 
through  vineyards,  under  trellised  vines  with  grapes  hanging 
in  all  their  purple  glory,  never  again  to  be  pressed  into  that 
which  can  debase  and  degrade  mankind;  when  they  shall 
come  through  orchards,  undor  trees  hanging  thick  with  gold- 
en, pulpy  fruit,  never  again  to  be  turned  into  that  which  can 
injure  and  debase;  when  they  shall  come  up  to  the  last  dis- 
tillery and  destroy  it,  to  the  last  stream  of  liquid  death  and 
dry  it  up,  to  the  last  weeping  wife  and  wipe  her  tears  gently 
away,  to  the  last  little  child  and  stand  him  up  where  God 
meant  that  man  should  stand,  to  the  last  drunkard  and  nerve 
him  to  burst  the  burning  fetters,  and  raise  the  song  of  free- 
dom by  the  clanking  of  his  broken  chains,  then,  ah!  then 


JOHN  B.    GOUGH.  207 

will  the  copestone  be  put  upon  it,  the  scaffolding  will  fall  with 
a  crash  and  the  building  will  stand  in  its  wondrous  beauty  be- 
fore an  astonished  world,  and  the  last  poor  drunkard  shall 
go  into  it  and  find  a  refuge  there. 


FRANK  P.  BLAIR. 


CHAMP    CLARK,    OF    MISSOURI. 

(From  remarks  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  4,  1899, 
in  presenting  to  Congress  statues  of  Benton  and  Blair.) 

If  the  government  built  monuments  to  soldiers  in  propor- 
tion to  what  they  really  accomplished  for  the  Union  cause, 
Frank  Blair's  would  tower  proudly  among  the  loftiest.  Camp 
Jackson  is  slurred  over  with  an  occasional  paragraph  in 
history  books,  but  it  was  the  turning  point  in  the  war  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  it  was  the  work  of  Frank  Blair,  the 
Kentuckian,  the  Missourian,  the  slave  owner,  the  patrician, 
the  leonine  soldier,  the  patriotic  statesman. 

Those  who  most  effectually  tied  the  hands  of  the  secession- 
ists and  who  unwittingly  but  most  largely  played  into  Blair's 
hands  were  the  advocates  of  "armed  neutrality" — certainly 
the  most  preposterous  theory  ever  hatched  in  the  brain  of 
man.  Who  was  its  father  can  not  now  be  definitely  ascer- 
tained, as  nobody  is  anxious  to  claim  the  dubious  honor  of  its 
paternity.  What  it  really  meant  may  be  shown  by  an  inci- 
dent that  happened  in  the  great  historic  county  of  Pike,  where 
I  now  reside — a  county  which  furnished  one  brigadier-general 
and  five  colonels  to  the  Union  Army  and  three  colonels  to  the 
Confederate,  with  a  full  complement  of  officers  and  men. 

Early  in  1861  a  great  "neutrality  meeting"  was  held  at 
Bowling  Green,  the  county  seat.  Hon.  William  L.  Gatewood,  a 
prominent  lawyer,  a  Virginian  or  Kentuckian  by  birth,  an 
ardent  southern  sympathizer,  subsequently  a  State  Senator, 
was  elected  chairman.  The  Pike  County  orators  were  out  in 


208  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

full  force,  but  chief  among  them  was  Hon.  W.  Anderson,  also 
a  prominent  lawyer,  an  East  Tennesseean  by  nativity,  after- 
wards a  colonel  in  the  Union  Army,  State  Senator,  and  for  four 
years  a  member  of  Congress.  Eloquence  was  on  tap  and 
flowed  freely.  Men  of  all  shades  of  opinion  fraternized;  they 
passed  strong  and  ringing  resolutions  in  favor  of  "armed 
neutrality,"  and  "all  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell." 

Chairman  Gate  wood  was  somewhat  mystified  and  not  alto- 
gether satisfied  by  the  harmonious  proceedings;  so,  after  ad- 
journment sine  die,  he  took  Anderson  out  under  a  convenient 
tree  and  in  his  shrill  tenor  nervously  inquired,  "George,  what 
does  'armed  neutrality'  mean,  anyhow?"  Anderson,  in  his 
deep  bass,  growled,  "It  means  guns  for  the  Union  men  and 
none  for  the  rebels!" — the  truth  and  wisdom  of  which  re- 
mark are  now  perfectly  apparent.  For  before  the  moon  had 
waxed  and  waned  again  the  leaders  of  that  "neutrality"  love 
feast  were  hurrying  to  and  fro,  beating  up  for  volunteers  in 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  country — some  for  service  in  the 
Union,  others  for  service  in  the  Confederate  Army. 

A  pioneer  in  the  Union  cause,  he  was  also  a  pioneer  peace- 
maker. Lately  we  have  heard  a  vast  deal  of  eloquence  about 
a  reunited  country.  Thirty-two  years  after  Appomattox  men 
are  accounted  orators,  statesmen,  and  philanthropists  because 
they  grandiloquently  declare  that  at  last  the  time  has  ar- 
rived to  bury  the  animosities  of  the  Civil  War  in  a  grave 
upon  whose  headstone  shall  be  inscribed,  "No  Resurrection." 
But  if  we  applaud  these  ex  post  facto  peacemakers  and  shed 
tears  of  joy  over  their  belated  pathos,  what  shall  be  our 
meed  of  praise,  the  measure  of  our  gratitude,  the  manifesta- 
tion of  our  admiration,  the  expression  of  our  love  for  Frank 
Blair,  the  magnificent  Missourian,  the  splendid  American, 
who,  with  his  military  laurels  fresh  upon  him,  within  a  few 
days  after  Lee  surrendered,  returned  to  his  State,  which  had 
been  ravaged  by  fire  and  sword,  holding  aloft  the  olive 
branch,  proclaiming  to  the  world  that  there  were  no  rebels 
any  more,  that  his  fellow  citizens  who  had  fought  for  the 
South  were  entitled  to  equal  respect  and  equal  rights  with 
other  citizens,  and  that  real  peace  must  "tinkle  on  the  shep- 
herd's bells  and  sing  among  the  reapers"  of  Missouri?  He 


CHAMP   CLARK.  209 

took  the  ragged  and  defeated  Confederates  by  the  hand,  and, 
in  the  words  of  Abraham  to  Lot,  said,  "We  be  brethren." 

The  truly  brave, 

When  they  behold  the  brave  oppressed  with  odds, 
Are  touched  with  a  desire  to  shield  and  save. 

In  the  fierce  and  all-pervading  light  of  history,  which 
beats  not  upon  thrones  alone  but  upon  all  high  places  as 
well,  Blair  will  stand  side  by  side  with  the  invincible  sol- 
dier who  said,  "Let  us  have  peace" — the  noblest  words  that 
ever  fell  from  martial  lips. 


210  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


ON  THE  PULLflAN  STRIKE. 

HON.    CUSHMAN    K.    DAVIS. 

(From   a   speech  delivered  in  the   United   States   Senate,    July   10, 

1894.) 

At  a  time  when  in  the  second  city  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  fourth  or  fifth  city  in  the  civilized  world,  order  is  sus- 
pended, law  is  powerless,  violence  is  supreme,  life  is  in  dan- 
ger, and  property  is  in  the  very  arms  of  destruction,  I  am 
appalled  to  hear  the  trumpet  of  sedition  blown  in  this  cham- 
ber to  marshal  the  hosts  of  misrule  to  further  devastation. 

Mr.  President,  this  question  does  not  now  concern  the  issue 
between  the  Pullman  company  and  its  employes.  It  has  got 
beyond  that.  It  does  not  concern  the  sympathetic  strike  of 
the  American  Railway  Union.  It  has  got  beyond  that.  It 
does  not  concern  any  strike  which  may  hereafter  be  ordered. 
It  has  gone  far  beyond  that.  A  simple  strike  as  to  a  local 
organization  not  directly  connected  with  the  transportation 
instrumentalities  of  this  country  grew  into  another  strike  of 
far  more  comprehensive  proportions.  That  grew  into  a  boy- 
cott. That  boycott  took  the  liberty  of  the  American  people 
by  the  throat,  and  then  grew  into  a  riot,  and  from  thence 
into  an  insurrection  which  confronts  this  government  to-day 
with  all  the  dormant  and  latent  powers  of  revolution,  and 
speaks  here  in  the  voice  of  its  advocates,  threatening  and 
advising  the  dismemberment  of  the  government  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  its  executive  and  legislative  departments. 

People  prate  about  liberty,  and  define  that  liberty  as  the 
liberty  of  the  particular  class  they  are  speaking  for.  The 
only  liberty  worth  having  in  this  country  is  the  equal  liberty 
of  all  men  alike.  Liberty  in  its  philosophical  and  common- 
sense  definition  consists  in  that  right  of  each  individual  to 
exercise  the  greatest  freedom  of  action  up  to,  and  not  beyond, 
that  point  when-  it  impinges  upon  the  like  exercise  of  free- 
dom of  action  of  every  other  man.  Beyond  that  it  is  the 
destruction  of  the  liberty  of  the  weak  by  the  strongest,  a 
subversion  of  the  very  theory  of  a  republic,  and  a  return  to 
primeval  anarchy  on  the  one  hand,  or,  as  an  alternative,  to 
despotism  on  the  other. 


CUSHMAN   K.   DAVIS.  211 

Do  not  people  realize  that  the  constitution  itself  is  upon 
trial  and  that  the  country  itself  is  in  danger?  The  military 
power,  the  last  resort  in  a  free  government,  has  necessarily 
been  called  into  action.  The  President  of  the  United  States, 
to  whom  is  committed  the  commandership  of  the  Army  and 
the  Navy,  in  the  execution  of  the  laws  has  declared  the 
danger  by  a  proclamation  which  every  citizen  is  bound  to 
/espect.  He  says,  "I  have  sent  the  troops  there;"  the  Sena- 
tor from  Kansas  says  "Take  them  away."  What  shield  does 
the  Senator  propose  to  interpose  between  the  innocent  peo- 
ple of  Chicago  and  their  property  and  the  men  who  to-day 
are  only  held  in  awe  and  suppressed  by  the  presence  of  troops, 
if  they  are  taken  away?  Can  Debs  recall  the  force  that  he 
has  unloosed?  He  can  no  more  do  it  than  by  word  he  can 
reconstruct  the  burnt  cars  or  give  back  life  to  those  from 
whom  it  has  been  taken  away  as  the  result  of  his  operations. 

I  have  not  said  a  word  about  parties  in  this  discussion.  I 
shall  expect  the  Democrats,  the  Populists,  and  the  Republic- 
ans to  join  hands  in  this  emergency,  which  Mr.  Debs  and 
those  who  are  acting  with  him  proclaim  to  be  of  supreme 
and  perilous  exigency  to  the  Republic,  and  which  the  Sena- 
tor from  Kansas  asserts  demands  the  dissolution  of  the  most 
important  functions  of  this  government,  to  the  end  that  a 
secure  and  peaceful  rest  may  be  attained  at  last,  to  accom- 
plish which  the  best  efforts  of  the  legislative  department  of 
this  government,  and  of  all  departments,  will  be  bent  to 
bring  about  the  only  solution  of  these  difficulties  which  pos- 
sibly can  be  attained. 


THE  PLACE  OF  ATHLETICS  IN  COLLEGE  LIFE. 

CHAUNCEY   M.    DEPBW. 

Dyspepsia  is  no  longer  the  test  of  scholarship,  and  honors 
are  not  won  by  shadows.  The  theology  of  to-day  believes 
that  there  are  no  antagonisms  between  spirituality  and  mus- 
cularity. The  minister  who  hits  sin  so  hard  from  the  pul- 
pit can  whip  any  sinner  in  the  pew.  The  modern  student 
knows  that  a  well-developed  body  and  a  well-informed  mind 
are  necessary  partners  for  intellectual  and  material  triumphs. 


212  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Exercise  in  solitude  and  without  the  stimulus  of  friendly 
contest  is  always  a  failure.  The  dumb-bell  becomes  a  nui- 
sance, and  the  Indian  club  a  fraud.  Venerable  axioms  are 
exploded;  mechanical  movements  of  muscles  make  neither 
athletes  nor  healthy  students.  The  excited  mind  must  guide 
the  procession  of  the  limbs.  To  force  water  by  a  hand  pump 
in  the  cellar  to  a  tank  on  the  roof  is  worn;  to  master  the 
glqrious  sweep  and  artistic  dip  of  the  oar  is  exercise  and 
fame. 

Athletics  have  encouraged  manliness  and  stamped  out  ruf- 
fianism. Every  healthy  youth  generates  steam  faster  than 
under  ordinary  conditions  he  can  work  it  off.  In  the  old 
days  it  impelled  him  to  throw  bricks  through  the  tutor's  win- 
dows, to  crack  the  college  bell,  to  steal  signs,  and  wrench 
off  door  knobs.  These  diversions  taught  him  contempt  for 
law,  and  kept  him  in  fear  of  the  constable  and  dangerously 
near  the  police  court.  It  dulled  his  sense  of  honor,  and  left 
a  stain  upon  his  character  to  be  exhibited  under  other  condi- 
tions in  after  years.  He  was  rusticated  for  rioting  and 
dropped  because  he  had  neither  a  disciplined  mind  nor  could 
submit  to  discipline. 

But  with  the  bat,  the  ball,  the  oar,  with  the  training  of 
the  gymnasium,  and  in  the  splendid  vigor  of  competitive 
sports,  came  the  fire  and  enthusiasm,  of  the  Olympian  games. 
The  hard  lesson  that  the  best  training  and  the  most  faith- 
ful work  alone  win  the  prizes  is  learned  under  joyous  con- 
ditions. The  page  again  welcomes  every  hardship  that  he 
may  bear  the  armor  of  the  knight,  and  the  spirit  of  chivalry 
pervades  the  university.  The  pent-up  forces  and  the  resist- 
less energies  of  the  students  become  the  potent  agents  for 
physical  development  and  mental  discipline,  and  for  the 
growth  of  moral  and  intellectual  health. 

Such  men  hail  difficulties  with  ardor  and  overcome  them 
with  ease.  They  love  work  because  of  the  perfect  machinery 
which  wins  the  game  or  elucidates  the  problem.  The  school 
of  unruly  boys  becomes  a  university  of  active,  thoughtful  and 
self-reliant  gentlemen.  The  requirements  for  admission  are 
constantly  increasing,  and  the  standard  for  graduation  is  per- 
petually rising. 


CHAUNCEY   M.  DEPEW.  213 

Already  practical  men  are  becoming  alarmed  for  fear  the 
advancing  demands  of  the  college  courses  may  keep  a  man 
an  undergraduate  so  long,  and  launch  him  into  his  life  work 
so  late  that  he  can  neither  catch  up  nor  compete  with  those 
who  came  younger  into  the  field.  Except  for  the  disciplined 
and  obedient  mind  which  come  from  the  training  of  the  ath- 
lete, it  would  be  hard  to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  curriculum 
within  proper  years. 


THE  LAWYER  AND  FREE  INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAUNCEY   M.    DEPEW. 

Ours  is  and  always  has  been  a  government  controlled  by 
lawyers.  In  this  De  Tocqueville  recognized  its  greatest  claim 
to  stability  and  expansion.  The  profession  has  contributed 
seventeen  of  the  twenty-one  presidents  of  the  United  States 
and  filled  cabinets  and  councils.  Its  radicalism  has  always 
tended  to  the  preservation  of  liberty,  the  maintenance  of 
order,  and  the  protection  of  property. 

Lawyers  can  be  agitators  without  being  demagogues.  They 
have  codified  the  laws,  brushed  away  the  subtleties  of  prac- 
tice, abolished  those  fictions  of  law  and  equity  which  de- 
feated justice;  and  yet  liberties  are  always  so  enlarged  as 
to  preserve  essential  rights.  No  other  profession  or  pursuit 
has  behind  it  exemplars  and  a  history  like  the  law.  Its 
teachers  have  been  the  foes  of  anarchy,  misrule,  and  tyranny, 
and  its  principles  form  the  foundation  of  governments  and 
the  palladium  of  rights. 

Call  the  roll,  and  you  summon  God's  chosen  ministers  of 
civilization  and  reform.  It  was  not  Pericles,  but  Solon  and 
his  statutes  who  made  possible  Grecian  power  and  progress. 
It  was  not  her  legion  but  her  twelve  tables,  which  made 
Rome  the  mistress  of  the  world.  It  was  not  the  defeat  of  the 
Moslem  hordes,  but  the  discovery  of  the  Pandects,  which 
preserved  Europe.  It  was  not  the  Norman  conqueror,  but 
the  common  law,  which  evolved  constitutional  freedom  out 
of  chaos,  revolution,  and  despotism. 


214  j  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

In  the  sack  of  the  Italian  city  of  Amain,  a  copy  of  the 
Pandects  was  discovered;  the  study  of  the  civil  law  sprang 
up  all  over  Europe,  and  its  administration  passed  from  the 
hands  of  the  eccleiastics  to  its  trained  professors.  In  re- 
venge, the  council  of  the  church  held  at  Amain  decreed  that 
no  lawyer  could  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  the  law- 
yers have  requited  this  anathema  by  largely  converting  the 
nations  from  the  hell  of  arms  to  the  heaven  of  arbitra- 
tion. 

Few  of  the  barons  at  Runnymede  could  read,  and  their 
sword  hilt  were  their  marks;  but  the  lawyers  improved  upon 
their  demands  by  grafting  upon  the  great  Charter  those  Saxon 
liberties  for  the  individual  embodied  in  that  noble  senti- 
ment of  the  last  will  of  King  Alfred,  that  "it  was  just  the 
English  should  ever  remain  as  free  as  their  own  thoughts." 
It  was  the  courts  and  not  the  commons  which  convinced  the 
great  and  arbitrary  Queen  Elizabeth  that  there  were  limits 
to  the  royal  prerogative,  and  warned  Charles  the  First  that 
taxation  without  representation  might  cost  him  his  head. 

It  was  as  a  law  student  that  Cromwell  learned  those  prin- 
ciples which  caused  him  to  pledge  fortune  and  life  to  the 
motto,  "that  resistance  to  tyrants  is  obedience  to^God,"  and 
when  the  gay  Cavalier  went  down  before  the  resistless  charge 
of  his  Ironsides,  the  freedom  and  development  of  the  English- 
speaking  world  was  assured.  He  established  peace,  and  en- 
larged the  power  of  his  country  abroad,  and,  though  Charles 
the  Second,  by  violating  the  law,  might  squander  the  glorious 
inheritance  and  disinter  the  remains  of  the  great  Protector 
and  hang  them  at  Tyburn,  his  spirit  crossed  the  seas  in  the 
Mayflower  and  founded  this  Republic. 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  PEOPLE. 
JOHN     BRIGHT. 

Our  opponents  have  charged  us  with  being  the  promoters 
of  a  dangerous  excitement.  They  have  the  effrontery  to  say 
that  I  am  the  friend  of  public  disorder.  I  am  one  of  the 


JOHNdBRIGHT.  215 

people.  Surely  if  there  be  one  thing  in  a  free  country  more 
clear  than  another  it  is  that  any  one  of  the  people  may  speak 
openly  to  the  people.  If  I  speak  to  the  people  of  their 
rights,  and  indicate  to  them  the  way  to  secure  them — if  I 
speak  of  their  danger  to  the  monopolists  of  power — am  I  not 
a  wise  counselor,  both  to  the  people  and  to  their  rulers? 

Suppose  I  stood  at  the  foot  of  Vesuvius,  or  Aetna,  and,  see- 
ing a  hamlet  or  a  homestead  planted  on  its  slope,  I  said  to  the 
dwellers  in  that  hamlet  or  in  that  homestead,  "You  see  that 
vapor  which  ascends  from  the  summit  of  the  mountain? 
That  vapor  may  become  a  dense,  black  smoke,  that  will  ob- 
scure the  sky.  You  see  the  trickling  of  lava  from  the  crevices 
in  the  side  of  the  mountain?  That  trickling  of  lava  may  be- 
come a  river  of  fire.  You  hear  that  muttering  in  the  bowels 
of  the  mountain?  That  muttering  may  become  a  bellowing 
thunder,  the  voice  of  a  violent  convulsion,  that  may  shake  half 
a  continent.  You  know  that  at  your  feet  is  the  grave  of  great 
cities,  for  which  there  is  no  resurrection,  as  histories  tell  us 
that  dynasties  and  aristocracies  have  passed  away  and  their 
names  have  been  known  no  more  forever." 

If  I  say  this  to  the  dwellers  upon  the  slope  of  the  mountain, 
and  if  there  comes  hereafter  a  catastrophe  which  makes  the 
world  to  shudder,  am  I  responsible  for  that  catastrophe?  I 
did  not  build  the  mountain  or  fill  it  with  explosive  materials. 
I  merely  warned  the  men  that  were  in  danger.  So  now  it  is 
not  I  who  am  stimulating  men  to  the  violent  pursuit  of  their 
acknowledged  constitutional  rights. 

The  class  which  has  hitherto  ruled  in  this  country  has 
failed  miserably.  It  revels  in  power  and  wealth,  whilst  at  its 
feet,  a  terrible  peril  to  its  future,  lies  the  multitude  which  it 
has  neglected.  If  a  class  has  failed,  let  us  try  the  nation. 

That  is  our  faith,  that  is  our  purpose,  that  is  our  cry.  Let 
us  try  the  nation.  This  it  is  which  has  called  together  these 
countless  numbers  of  the  people  to  demand  a  change,  and 
from  these  gatherings,  sublime  in  their  vastness  and  their 
resolution,  I  think  I  see,  as  it  were,  above  the  hilltops  of 
time  the  glimmerings  of  the  dawn  of  a  better  and  nobler  day 
for  the  country  and  for  the  people  that  I  love  so  well. 


216  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER; 


POLITICAL  EDUCATION. 

PRESIDENT  ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY,  of  Tale  University. 
{Condensed  from  an  a.rticle  in  The  Atlantic  for  August,   1900.) 

It  must  constantly  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  training  of 
the  free  citizen  is  not  so  much  a  development  of  certain  lines 
of  knowledge  as  a  development  of  certain  qualities  of  char- 
acter and  habits  of  action.  Courage,  discipline  and  loftiness 
of  purpose  are  the  things  really  necessary  for  maintaining  a 
free  government.  If  a  citizen  possesses  these  qualities  of 
character  he  will  acquire  the  knowledge  which  is  essential  to 
the  conduct  of  the  country's  institutions  and  to  the  reform  of 
the  abuses  which  may  arise. 

On  that  feeling  which  gives  effect  to  those  political  virtues 
we  have  bestowed  the  name  of  public  sentiment.  It  may  be 
said  to  perform  the  same  function  in  the  world  of  political 
morality  which  the  individual  conscience  performs  in  the 
wider  domain  of  personal  morality.  It  will  be  readily  seen 
that  public  sentiment,  as  thus  described,  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  much  that  passes  under  that  name.  If  a  large 
number  of  people  want  a  thing,  we  not  infrequently  hear  it 
said  that  there  is  a  public  sentiment  in  its  favor.  It  would 
be  much  more  correct  to  say  that  there  is  a  widespread  per- 
sonal interest  in  securing  it.  The  term  public  sentiment  can 
only  be  applied  to  those  feelings  and  demands  which  people 
are  willing  to  enforce  at  their  own  cost,  as  well  as  at  that 
of  others.  There  is  just  as  much  need  for  the  training  of 
this  public  conscience  or  public  sentiment,  by  whatever  name 
we  choose  to  call  it,  as  for  the  training  of  the  individual  con- 
science in  the  affairs  of  private  morals,  but  means  for  this 
education  have  not  kept  pace  with  the  need.  In  some  respects 
we  have  actually  gone  backward. 

Grand  as  is  the  work  which  is  done  by  the  courts  of  the 
present  day,  it  is  doubtful  whether  their  function  as  public 
educators  stands  where  it  did  a  century  ago.  Partly  on  ac- 
count of  the  increasing  difficulty  of  the  cases  with  which  they 
have  to  deal,  partly  on  account  of  a  theory  of  legal  authority 
which  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  our 
judges  have  contented  themselves  more  and  more  with  the 


ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY,  217 

application  of  precedents,and  have  been  less  and  less  con- 
cerned with  the  elucidation  of  reasons  which  should  appeal  to 
the  non-technical  mind.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  per- 
formance of  jury  duty,  once  an  all  but  universal  educator 
in  the  principles  underlying  some  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  the  law,  has  now  become  a  burden  which  men 
seek  to  avoid,  and  we  see  how  the  judiciary  has  been  largely 
shorn  of  those  educational  functions  which  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race  have  been  even  more  important  than  the 
purely  technical  duties  of  office. 

A  still  more  serious  retrogression  has  perhaps  taken  place 
in  the  educational  influence  of  our  public  orators  and  de- 
baters. It  is  hardly  more  than  a  generation  since  the  utter- 
ances of  political  leaders  in  and  out  of  congress  were  a 
mighty  power  for  the  shaping  of  public  opinion.  To-day,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  almost  proverbial  that  the  effective 
speeches  are  those  which  voice  a  prepossession  already  felt, 
and  give  a  rallying  cry  to  partisan  or  personal  interests. 

It  is  a  common  saying  that  newspapers  have  taken  the  place 
of  orators  as  the  educators  of  public  sentiment.  That  the 
change  has  been  attended  with  some  advantages,  none  but 
the  blindest  pessimist  would  deny.  The  average  citizen  learns 
more  facts  through  his  newspapers  in  a  day  than  he  learned 
from  his  public  speakers  in  a  month.  Materials  for  judg- 
ment are  thus  brought  home  to  him  far  more  promptly,  and 
on  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  rather  more  truthfully, 
than  they  were  under  the  old  regime.  But  whatever  advan- 
tages the  modern  newspaper  offers,  it  does  not,  with  some 
honorable  exceptions,  recognize  the  duty  of  educating  public 
sentiment  as  a  paramount  one.  Too  often  it  is  compelled  by 
pressure  of  necessity  to  subordinate  everything  else  to  par- 
tisan ends. 

All  these  facts  increase  the  responsibility  which  is  placed 
upon  our  institutions  of  learning.  The  more  inadequate  the 
means  for  forming  a  disinterested  public  opinion  in  other 
ways,  the  more  urgent  is  the  need  that  our  colleges  should 
make  this  one  of  their  chief  functions.  It  will  not  do  to  have 
our  higher  education  a  purely  technical  one.  I  would  not 
undervalue  for  one  moment  the  importance  of  hard  and  thor- 
ough work,  but  unless  our  teachers  can  find  methods  of  secur- 


218  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

ing  this  work  on  broad  lines  instead  of  narrow  ones,  the 
collegiate  education  of  the  country,  in  its  older  sense,  is 
bound  to  pass  away,  because  it  will  no  longer  be  fulfilling  its 
definite  function  in  the  training  of  the  citizen. 


EDUCATION  AND  CHARACTER. 


WM.    L.   PRATHER. 

(From  an  address  delivered  at  the  opening  exercises  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas,   October  4,  1899.) 

Education  is  the  most  important  subject  that  can  engage 
the  attention  of  young  men  and  women.  When  Aristotle  was 
asked  in  what  way  the  educated  differed  from  the  unedu- 
cated, he  replied:  "As  the  living  differ  from  the  dead." 

In  the  early  part  of  our  history  the  American  college;  was 
largely  ecclesiastical,  and  young  men  attended  college  to 
study  church  creeds.  Gradually,  however,  the  college  became 
a  civil  and  political  institution.  When  the  commonwealth, 
realizing  that  a  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  was  essential 
to  the  preservation  of  the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  people, 
undertook  the  great  duty  of  educating  its  children,  and  each 
state  of  the  Union  established  a  university  at  the  head  of  its 
system  of  public  education,  the  American  university  passed 
to  a  higker  and  broader  plane,  and  now  has  for  its  object 
the  preparation  of  men  and  women  for  all  the  high  duties  of 
citizenship. 

This  university  was  established  by  Texans  for  Texans,  and 
must  be  administered  for  Texans.  Every  officer  and  employe 
should  be  imbued  with  a  patriotic  desire  to  serve  this  great 
commonwealth.  Every  young  man  and  young  woman  edu- 
cated within  these  walls  owes  it  to  the  state  to  repay  its 
outlay  for  them. 

The  greatest  good  that  can  come  into  the  life  of  a  human 
being  through  the  process  of  education  is  a  personal  richness 
and  beauty.  "Education  is  not  to  make  us  seem  to  be  greater 
to  the  world,  but  that  the  world  and  all  life  and  all  eternity 
may  seem  greater  and  richer  and  more  beautiful  to  us." 


WM.   L.    PRATHER.  219 

Let  me  hold  up  to  you  the  beauty  and  glorious  possibilities 
of  the  youth  with  which  you  are  endowed.  Do  you  realize 
what  a  peerless  privilege  it  is  to  be  young?  Youth  is  ad- 
mitted by  all  to  be  the  most  fascinating  period  of  life,  with 
its  freshness,  its  enthusiasm  and  confidence,  frankly  respond- 
ing to  every  act  of  kindness  and  opening  the  heart  to  every 
overture  of  love.  It  has  been  said,  "Youth  is  the  time  when 
we  own  the  world  and  the  fullness  thereof.  Youth,  like  Napo- 
leon, sees  the  world  and  proceeds  to  conquer  it.  Youth  sees 
mountains  and  dares  to  climb  them;  stone  walls,  and  dares  to 
beat  them  down;  chasms,  and  dares  to  bridge  them."  Youth 
here  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  has  all  history 
and  all  lands  for  its  demesne,  though  it  may  live  in  a  cottage 
or  a  cabin.  It  has  for  its  birthright  every  discovery,  every 
invention,  every  conquest  since  the  world  began.  Youth,  for 
which  the  cave  dwellers  made  their  rude  implements  of  stone 
as  they  groped  their  way  in  the  dawn  of  human  evolution. 
Youth,  for  whom  Shakespeare  wrote,  for  whom  Newton  and 
Kepler  and  Edison  solved  the  mysteries  of  the  world,  and 
for  whom  the  twentieth  century  is  preparing  to  open  its  golden 
gates  of  promise. 

Let  me  emphasize  the  fact  that  character  is  above  every- 
thing. It  is  the  only  indestructible  material  in  destiny's  fierce 
crucible.  Character  is  itself  a  rank  and  an  estate.  Charac- 
ter stands  in  majesty  unawed  and  unmoved  before  men  and 
devils.  Character  stands  confident  and  trustful  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  himself.  Genius,  so  often  lauded,  fails  fre- 
quently of  its  aim  for  want  of  character  to  support  it.  The 
men  upon  whom  society  leans  are  men  of  proved  honor,  recti- 
tude and  consistency,  whose  sterling  character  gives  pledge 
of  faithfulness  to  every  trust  committed  to  them. 

Thackeray  says:  "Nature  has  written  a  letter  of  credit 
upon  some  men's  faces  wThich  is  honored  wherever  presented. 
There  is  a  'promise  to  pay'  in  their  faces  that  inspires  confi- 
dence, and  you  prefer  it  to  another  man's  indorsement."  As 
the  rivulet  scoops  out  the  valley,  moulds  the  hillside  and 
carves  the  mountain's  face,  so  the  stream  of  thought  sculp- 
tures the  soul  into  grace,  mellows  the  heart  to  tenderness 
and  love,  and  these  are  mirrored  in  the  countenance. 

In  summing  up  all  I  would  say  to  you,  let  me  borrow  the 
fine  phrase  of  a  gifted  man  of  our  own  time: 


220  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

"Live  out  truly  your  human  life  as  a  human  life;  not  as  a 
supernatural  life,  for  you  are  a  man  and  not  an  angel;  not  as 
a  sensual  life,  for  you  are  a  man  and  not  a  brute;  not  as  a 
wicked  life,  for  you  are  a  man  and  not  a  demon;  not  as  a 
frivolous  life,  for  you  are  a  man  and  not  an  insect.  Live 
each  day  the  true  life  of  a  man  to-day;  not  yesterday's  life 
only,  lest  you  become  a  visionary;  but  the  life  of  happy  yes- 
terdays and  confident  to-morrows — the  life  of  to-day,  un- 
wounded  by  the  Parthian  arrows  of  yesterday  and  undarkened 
by  the  possible  cloudland  of  to-morrow." 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SELF-HADE  FIAN. 


GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  at  the  Princeton  Commemoration  Exercises, 
October  22,  1897.) 

Manifestly  among  the  tools  to  be  used  in  the  construction 
of  the  best  quality  of  our  self-made  men,  education  is  vitally 
important.  Its  share  of  the  work  consists  in  so  strengthen- 
ing and  fashioning  the  grain  and  fibre  of  the  material  as  to 
develop  its  greatest  power  and  fit  it  for  the  most  extensive 
and  varied  service.  This  process  cannot  be  neglected  with  the 
expectation  of  satisfactory  results,  and  its  thoroughness  and 
effectiveness  must  depend  upon  the  excellence  and  condi- 
tion of  the  tool  employed,  and  the  skill  and  care  with  which 
it  is  used.  Happily  we  are  able  to  recognize  conditions  which 
tend  to  an  improved  appreciation  of  collegiate  advantages. 
The  extension  of  our  school  system  ought  to  stimulate  the 
desire  of  pupils  to  enjoy  larger  opportunities.  The  old  super- 
stition concerning  the  close  relationship  between  the  great- 
ness of  the  self-made  man  and  meager  educational  advantages 
is  fast  disappearing,  and  parents  are  more  generally  con- 
vinced that  the  time  and  money  involved  in  a  college  course 
for  their  children  are  not  wasted.  In  these  circumstances  it 
seems  to  me  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  why  so  many  of 
our  young  men  fail  of  enrollment  among  our  college  stu- 
dents. I  am  afraid  the  fault  is  largely  theirs  and  that  they 


GROVER   CLEVELAND.  221 

do  not  fully  realize  the  great  benefit  they,  themselves,  would 
derive  from  a  liberal  education,  and  even  without  this,  the 
obligation  resting  upon  them  to  do  their  share  toward  fur- 
nishing to  our  country  the  kind  of  self-made  men  it  so 
much  needs,  ought  to  incite  them  to  enter  upon  this  work 
in  the  surest  and  most  effective  manner.  We  are  consid- 
ering the  importance  of  a  liberal  education  from  a  point 
of  view  that  excludes  the  idea  that  such  an  education  is 
only  useful  as  a  preparation  for  a  professional  career.  In 
my  opinion  we  could  as  reasonably  claim  that  our  profes- 
sional ranks  are  more  than  sufficiently  recruited,  as  to  say 
that  educated  men  are  out  of  place  in  other  walks  of  life. 
We  need  the  right  kind  of  educated,  self-made  men  in  our 
business  circles,  on  our  farms  and  everywhere.  We  need 
them  for  the  good  they  can  do  by  raising  the  standard  of 
intelligence  within  their  field  of  influence.  We  need  them 
for  the  evidence  they  may  furnish  that  education  is  a  profit- 
able factor  in  all  vocations  and  in  all  the  ordinary  affairs 
of  a  community,  and  we  especially  and  sorely  need  such 
men,  abundantly  distributed  among  our  people,  for  what  they 
may  do  in  patriotically  steadying  the  current  of  political 
sentiment  and  action. 

I  hardly  need  say  that  this  means  something  more  than 
mere  book  learning  and  that  it  includes  the  practical  knowl- 
edge and  information  concerning  men  and  things  which  so 
easily  accompanies  the  knowledge  of  books,  as  well  as  the 
mental  discipline  and  orderly  habit  of  thought  which  syste- 
matic study  begets.  Obviously  this  definition  excludes  that 
measure  of  book  learning  barely  sufficient  to  claim  a  diploma 
and  used  for  no  better  purpose  than  to  decorate  the  ease  of 
wealth  and  ornament  of  an  inactive  existence. 

Sordid  ness  is  not  confined  to  those  whose  only  success  con- 
sists in  riches.  There  is  a  sordidness  of  education  more 
censurable  though  perhaps  less  exposed.  There  are  those 
whose  success  is  made  up  of  a  vast  accumulation  of  educa- 
tion who  are  as  miserly  in  its  possession  as  the  most  avar- 
icious among  the  rich.  No  one  is  justified  in  hoarding  edu- 
cation solely  for  his  selfish  gratification.  To  keep  it  en- 
tirely in  close  custody,  to  take  a  greedy  pleasure  in  its  con- 
templation and  to  utilize  it  only  as  a  means  of  personal  un- 
shared enjoyment,  is  more  unpardonable  than  the  clutch  of 


222  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

the  miser  upon  his  money;  for  he  in  its  accumulation  has 
been  subjected  to  the  cramping  and  narrowing  influences  of 
avarice,  while  he  who  hoards  education  does  violence  to  the 
broad  and  liberal  influences  which  accompany  its  acquisition. 
The  obligations  of  wealth  and  the  obligations  of  education 
are  co-operative  and  equally  binding.  The  discharge  of  these 
obligations  involves  restraint  as  well  as  activity.  The  rich 
man  should  restrain  himself  from  harboring  or  having  the 
appearance  of  harboring  any  feeling  of  purse-proud  supe- 
riority over  his  less  wealthy  fellows.  Without  such  restraint 
the  distance  is  lengthened  between  him  and  those  whom, 
by  contact  and  association,  he  might  benefit.  It  is  thus,  too, 
that  envious  discontent  and  hatred  of  the  rich  is  engendered 
and  perpetuated.  So  also  the  man  of  education  should  care- 
fully keep  himself  from  the  indulgence  or  seeming  indulgence 
in  a  supercilious  loftiness  toward  his  fellow  citizens.  Other- 
wise he  will  see  those  whom  he  might  improve  and  elevate, 
if  within  his  reach,  standing  aloof  and  answering  every  invi- 
tation to  a  nearer  approach  with  mockery  and  derision.  The 
benign  influence  of  both  the  educated  and  the  rich  is 
among  and  with  their  fellow  men  of  less  education  and 
less  wealth;  and  real  and  hearty  fellowship  is  absolutely 
needful  to  the  success  of  their  mission. 


A  GREAT  MAN  OF  BUSINESS. 


(New   York  Sun,  August  16,  1900.) 

Collis  Potter  Huntington,  president  or  director  of  many 
great  railroad,  steamboat,  and  other  enterprises,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  American  geniuses  for  business,  was  a  poor  Con- 
necticut boy  in  a  large  family.  He  began  his  business  career 
at  fourteen.  He  worked  for  seven  dollars  a  month  at  first. 
He  was  a  peddler;  he  kept  a  general  store;  he  got  rich  in 
hardware.  Then  he  had  a  continental  idea,  of  a  railroad 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific.  Huntington,  Hopkins, 
Stanford  and  Crocker  must  be  numbered  always  among  the 


A   GREAT   MAN   OF   BUSINESS.  223 

greater  gods  of  business,  men  who  foresaw  the  future  and 
were  equal  to  a  mighty  enterprise.  With  them  and  after- 
ward without  them,  Mr.  Huntington,  the  sturdy  survivor  of 
those  giants,  those  planners  and  builders,  carried  on  a  multi- 
tude of  prosperous  undertakings.  He  was  much  hated,  not  so 
much  by  rivals  as  by  the  unsuccessful  loafers  who  regard  the 
riches  of  others  as  an  insult  to  themselves,  but  he  was  a  de- 
cent citizen,  quiet,  thoroughly  American,  and  thoroughly  un- 
ostentatious. 

When  Collis  Huntington  was  a  boy,  the  Connecticut  folks 
were  saying,  "O,  there's  no  chance  to  get  rich  now.  When 
you  had  a  fat  contract  in  the  War  of  1812  you  could  make 
some  money,  but  it's  too  late  now.  A  poor  man  has  no 
chance." 

And  now  the  bilious,  the  discontented  and  the  lazy  are 
saying,  "O,  Huntington  made  a  lot  of  money,  but  there  is 
no  such  chance  now." 

There  will  always  be  a  chance  for  the  frugal,  the  enter- 
prising and  the  foresighted.  The  first  competence  that  Hunt- 
ington got  was  such  a  competence  as  is  within  the  reach 
of  almost  all.  The  affairs  of  magnificent  scope  in  which  he 
afterward  engaged  were  such  as  can  be  managed  only  by 
the  wide-ranging  man  of  genius.  His  was  a  broad  imagina- 
tion supported  by  a  solid  base  of  practical  business  sense. 
There  cannot  be  many  such  men  any  more  than  there  can 
be  many  Shakespeares  and  Dantes,  but  some  there  will  be 
in  every  age;  and  in  his  way  a  mighty  man  of  business  must 
have  something,  indeed  a  good  deal,  of  the  mathematician 
and  the  poet.  In  the  lower,  but  easier,  walks  of  trade  the 
way  to  success  is  just  as  easy  and  just  as  hard  now  as  it 
was  when  Mr.  Huntington  was  a  boy. 

Somewhere  or  other  in  the  works  of  Edward  Everett — 
his  brilliant  son  will  correct  us  if  we  quote  the  spirit  rather x 
than  the  letter — is  a  passage  in  which  he  speaks  of  the 
boys  "who  have  inherited  nothing  but  poverty  and  health, 
who  in  a  few  years  will  be  striving,  in  generous  contention 
with  the  great  intellects  of  the  land.  It  remains  for  each, 
by  darting  forward  like  a  greyhound  at  the  slightest  glimpse 
of  honorable  opportunity,  by  redeeming  time,  defying  temp- 
tation and  scorning  sensual  pleasure,  to  make  himself  useful, 
honored  and  happy." 


224  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


UNION  VS.  DISUNION. 


SAM   HOUSTON. 

(From  a  speech  delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate,  February, 

1850.) 

I  call  on  the  friends  of  the  Union  from  every  quarter  to 
come  forward  like  men,  and  to  sacrifice  their  differences 
upon  the  common  altar  of  their  country's  good,  and  to  form 
a  bulwark  around  the  constitution  that  cannot  be  shaken. 
It  will  require  manly  efforts,  sir,  and  they  must  expect  to 
meet  with  prejudices  growing  up  that  will  assail  them  from 
every  quarter.  They  must  stand  firm  to  the  Union,  regard- 
less of  all  personal  consequences.  Time  alone  can  recom- 
pense them  for  their  sacrifice  and  labors;  for  devotion  to 
country  can  never  be  forgotten  when  it  is  offered  freely  and 
without  expectation  of  reward.  The  incense  of  self-sacrifice, 
when  thus  offered  on  their  country,  will  be  acceptable  to  the 
people.  Do  not  the  American  people  love  this  Union?  Are 
they  not  devoted  to  it?  Is  not  every  reminiscence  of  the 
past  associated  with  its  glories,  and  are  they  not  calculated 
to  inspire  prayers  for  its  prosperity  and  its  perpetuity?  If 
this  were  not  the  case,  you  might  think  lightly  of  our  noble 
confederacy;  but  so  it  is — it  stands  connected  with  every 
fibre  of  the  national  heart,  and  is  interwoven  with  every 
glorious  recollection  of  the  past,  which  affection  or  reverence 
can  inspire  in  the  minds  of  the  American  people.  It  is  not, 
Mr.  President,  that  twenty-three  millions  of  souls  are  in- 
volved in  the  perpetuity  of  this  Union;  it  is  not  that  every 
consideration  of  happiness  connected  with  country  appertains 
to  it;  but  it  is  because  it  is  the  great  moral,  social  and 
political  lever  that  has  moved,  is  moving,  and  will  cintinue 
to  move  the  world.  Look  abroad  at  foreign  nations,  and 
behold  the  influence  of  our  example  upon  them — nay,  not 
ours,  for  I  feel  a  sense  of  humiliation  when  I  contrast  the 
efforts  of  any  man  now  living  with  the  illustrious  achieve- 
ments of  the  departed  sages  and  heroes  who  performed  this 
mighty  work. 

Disunion  has  been  proclaimed  in  this  hall.  What  a  de- 
lightful commentary  on  the  freedom  of  our  institutions  and 


SAM    HOUSTON.  225 

the  forbearance  of  the  public  mind  when  a  man  is  per- 
mitted to  go  unscathed  and  unscourged,  who,  in  a  delibera- 
tive body  like  this,  has  made  such  a  declaration!  Sir,  no 
higher  assurance  can  be  given  of  the  freedom  of  our  insti- 
tutions, and  of  the  forbearance  of  the  American  people,  and 
their  reliance  upon  the  reason  and  intelligence  of  the  com- 
munity. The  intelligent  mind  is  left  free  to  combat  error. 
Such  sentiments,  with  their  authors,  will  descend  to  the 
obscurity  and  the  tomb  of  oblivion.  I  have  only  to  say,  in 
conclusion,  that  those  who  proclaim  disunion,  no  matter  of 
what  name  politically — that  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  dis- 
union, conspire  against  the  Union  and  the  constitution,  are 
very  beautifully  described  in  Holy  Writ — they  are  "raging 
waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their  own  shame;  wandering 
stars,  to  whom  is  reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  for- 
ever." 


"WHEN  THE  TEXAN  GUARDS  THE  CAMP." 


SAM   HOUSTON. 

(From  his   last   public   address,   at  Waco,   Texas.) 

Ladies  and  Fellow  Citizens — With  feelings  of  pleasure  and 
friendly  greeting,  I  once  again  stand  before  an  assemblage 
of  my  fellow-countrymen,  who  from  their  homes  and  daily 
toil,  have  come  to  greet  once  again,  the  man  who  so  often 
has  known  their  kindness  and  affection. 

I  have  been  buffeted  by  the  waves,  as  I  have  been  borne 
along  Time's  ocean  until  shattered  and  worn,  I  approach  the 
narrow  isthmus,  which  divides  it  from  the  sea  of  Eternity 
beyond.  Ere  I  step  forward  to  journey  through  the  pilgrim- 
age of  Death,  I  would  say,  that  all  my  thoughts  and  hopes 
are  with  my  country.  If  one  impulse  rises  above  another, 
it  is  for  the  happiness  of  this  people;  the  welfare  and  glory 
of  Texas  will  be  the  uppermost  thought,  while  the  spark  of 
life  lingers  in  this  breast. 

Without  selfishness  of  heart,  then,  I  meet  you  to  talk,  not 
of  the  past,  but  of  the  present  and  the  future.  The  country 
demands  the  highest  energies  of  the  patriot  to  bear  its  .vic- 
torious banners  onward  to  peace  and  independence.  Once  I 


226  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

dreamed  of  empire,  as  vast  and  expansive  for  a  united  peo- 
ple, as  the  bounds  of  American  civilization.  The  dream  is 
over.  The  golden  charm  is  broken.  Let  us  gather  up  the 
links  that  remain  to  us,  and,  encircling  with  them  our 
hearts,  swear  to  resist  to  the  last  that  worst  of  all  tyranny, 
fraternal  hate. 

The  proud  achievements  of  the  troops  of  Texas  are  above 
all  praise.  History  furnishes  us  no  nobler  examples  of  hero- 
ism and  constancy.  I  know  of  no  battle  where  they  have 
been  engaged  that  they  have  not  been  chosen  to  bring  on 
the  fight.  What  battery  has  stood  the  force  of  their  resist- 
less charge?  What  retreat  have  they  failed  to  cover?  The 
flower  of  the  foe  has  been  cut  down  by  their  determined 
valor.  Patient  and  enduring  on  the  toilsome  march,  noise- 
less and  wary  on  the  dangerous  scout,  swift  and  certain  in 
the  surprise  and  terrible  as  the  tempest  blast  in  the  charge, 
they  have  proven  themselves  worthy  the  name  of  soldiers 
of  liberty.  If  the  world  has  ever  known  their  superiors  in 
valor,  history  gives  not  the  example. 

The  gallant  dead!  How  fell  they?  Heroes!  thousands  of 
whom  have  no  monuments,  save  the  memory  of  their  ever- 
lasting valor.  At  the  cannon's  mouth  where  the  foe  stood 
thickest,  in  the  deadliest  charge,  with  the  forlorn  hope,  on 
the  perilous  scout,  or  at  the  first  breach,  there  lay  the 
Texan!  The  soldier  of  liberty  died  for  her  sake, 

''Leaving  in  battle  not  a  blot  on  his  name, 
He  looked  proudly  to  Heaven  from  the  death-bed  of  fame." 

Such  men  cannot  be  conquered.  Massed  together  they 
would  have  checked  the  foe  wherever  he  has  gained  a  foot- 
hold on  our  soil.  The  nation  recognizes  them  as  the  bravest 
of  the  brave.  Generals  aspire  to  command  them,  and  the 
army  sleeps  secure  when  the  Texan  guards  the  camp. 


GERMAN  UNITY. 


ARTHUR   HOTT. 

Have  you  ever  read  that  poem  of  Arndt's,  "What  is  the 
German's  Fatherland?"  Arrogant  French  diplomacy  little 
knew  the  storm  it  was  gathering  to  burst  upon  its  own  head. 


ARTHUR   HOYT.  227 

It  planned  the  disruption  of  a  people,  but  inspired  a  song 
which  bound  it  with  cords  the  wildest  martial  fury  could  not 
snap.  How  all  their  later  history  breathes  and  pulsates  with 
this  unity  of  race.  How  the  word  "Fatherland"  is  twined 
about  the  very  tendrils  of  the  German  heart. 

Why  was  Frederic  called  the  "'Hero  of  Rosbach?"  That 
was  not  a  great  victory.  The  well  regulated  Prussian  valor 
easily  overcame  a  dunce  of  a  general  and  his  ill-disciplined 
army.  It  has  been  honored  and  crowned  because  it  made  a 
day  memorable  as  Agincourt  or  Bannockburn.  Hitherto  Ger- 
mans had  fought  Germans.  The  defeat  of  one  could  not  be 
called  the  honest  pride  of  the  other.  Rosbach  was  the  first 
field  won  from  the  Gallic  race  by  a  pure  Teutonic  army  since 
the  age  of  Charlemagne.  It  gave  language  to  unuttered  feel- 
ings, and  distinctly  proclaimed  the  reality  of  a  German  na- 
tion. 

Another  war  drew  the  same  character  in  a  bolder  hand. 
Six  short  weeks  humbled  the  power  of  Austria  and  pointed 
the  way  to  Prussian  ascendency.  No  thrill  of  joy  ran  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Alps.  Stained  and  tattered  banners  hung 
in  the  churches  of  Berlin;  but  they  told  only  the  story  of 
one  blood  and  one  language.  The  power  of  a  Bismarck  had 
crushed  forever  the  ambition  of  a  Leopold;  but  Germany 
kept  an  ominous  silence,  and  only  cast  suspicious  glances  at 
the  would-be  autocrat  of  Europe. 

A  handful  of  years  and  the  scene  has  changed.  A  rumor 
floats  on  the  heated  air  of  a  summer  day  that  startles  the 
quiet  of  a  sleepy  hamlet,  and  rises  above  the  din  of  the 
busiest  mart.  It  is  the  courier  of  war,  telling  with  panting 
breath  how  Paris  resounds  with  the  cry  of  "On  to  Berlin!" 
and  how  a  French  army  is  marching  for  the  Rhine.  The 
sluggish  German  blood  quickens  its  flow,  and  the  national 
heart  throbs  with  a  stronger  life.  Visions  of  desecrated 
homes  and  polluted  alters  rise  unbidden,  and  the  Father- 
land is  bulwarked  by  a  million  men.  "Empire  of  the  Air" 
no  longer,  Germany  becomes  the  "Empire  of  the  Land"  and 
vows  to  guard  forever  the  ancient  freedom  of  the  Rhine. 


228  MODERN   AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

"A  PLUMED  KNIGHT." 


ROBERT    G.     INGERSOLL. 

(Adapted    from    the    speech   nominating   Elaine    for  President,    in 
the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1876.) 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand  as  their 
leader  in  this  great  contest  of  1876  a  man  of  intelligence,  a 
man  of  integrity,  a  man  of  well-known  and  approved  politi- 
cal opinions.  They  demand  a  statesman.  They  demand  a 
politician  in  the  highest,  broadest,  and  best  sense,  a  man  of 
superb  moral  courage.  They  demand  a  man  who  knows  that 
prosperity  and  resumption,  when  they  come,  must  come  to- 
gether; that  when  they  come,  they  will  come  hand  in  hand 
through  the  golden  harvest  fields;  hand  in  hand  by  the 
whirling  spindles  and  the  turning  wheels;  hand  in  hand 
past  the  open  furnace  doors;  hand  in  hand  by  the  flamingjt 
gorges;  hand  in  hand  by  the  chimneys  filled  with  eager  fire, 
greeted  and  grasped  by  the  countless  sons  of  toil. 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  want  a  man  who 
knows  that  this  government  should  protect  every  citizen  at 
home  and  abroad;  who  knows  that  any  government  that  will 
not  defend  its  defenders  and  protect  its  protectors,  is  a  dis- 
grace to  the  map  of  the  world.  They  demand  a  man  who 
believes  in  the  eternal  separation  and  divorcement  of  church 
and  school.  They  demand  a  man  whose  political  reputation  is 
spotless,  crowned  with  the  vast  and  marvelous  achieve- 
ments of  its  first  century,  asks  for  a  man  worthy  of  the 
past  and  prophetic  of  the  future;  asks  for  a  man  who  has 
the  audacity  of  genius;  asks  for  a  man  who  has  the  grand- 
est combination  of  heart,  conscience,  and  brain  beneath  her 
flag.  Such  a  man  is  James  G.  Blaine. 

This  is  a  grand  year — a  year  filled  with  the  recollections  of 
the  Revolution,  filled  with  the  proud  and  tender  memories  of 
the  past,  with  the  sacred  legends  of  liberty — a  year  in  which 
the  sons  of  freedom  will  drink  from  the  fountain  of  enthus- 
iasm— a  year  in  which  the  people  call  for  a  man  who  has  pre- 
served in  Congress  what  our  soldiers  won  upon  the  field — for 
the  man  who  like  an  intellectual  athlete  has  stood  in  the 
arena  of  debate  and  challenged  all  comers,  and  who  is  still  a 
total  stranger  to  defeat. 


ROBERT  G.    INGERSOLL.  229 

Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a  plumed  knight,  James  G. 
Elaine  marched  down  the  halls  of  the  American  Congress  and 
threw  his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen  fore- 
heads of  the  defamers  of  his  country  and  the  maligner  of  her 
honor.  For  the  Republican  party  to  desert  this  gallant 
leader  now  is  as  though  an  army  should  desert  their  leader 
upon  the  field  of  battle. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention:  In  the  name  of  this  great 
Republic,  in  the  name  of  all  her  dependers  and  of  all  her 
supporters;  in  the  name  of  all  her  soldiers  living;  in  the 
name  of  all  her  soldiers  dead  upon  the  field  of  battle;  and  in 
the  name  of  those  who  perished  in  the  skeleton  clutch  of 
famine  at  Andersonville  and  Libby,  whose  sufferings  she  so 
vividly  remembers,  Illinois — Illinois  nominates  for  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  country  that  prince  of  parliamentarians,  that 
leader  of  leaders — James  G.  Elaine. 


HAPPINESS  AND  LIBERTY. 


ROBERT    G.    INGERSOLL. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  rich  in  order  to  be  happy.  The 
laugh  of  a  child  will  brighten  the  gloom  of  the  darkest  day. 
Strike  with  the  hand  of  fire,  O  weird  musician,  upon  the 
harpstring  with  Apollo's  golden  hair.  Fill  the  vast  cathedral 
aisles  with  symphonies  sweet  and  dim.  Blow,  bugles,  blow 
until  your  silvery  notes  do  touch  and  kiss  the  moon-lit  waves 
and  charm  the  lovers  wandering  'neath  the  vine  clad  hills; 
but  know  that  your  sweetest  strains  are  but  discords  all 
compared  with  childhood's  happy  laugh.  Oh  rippling  river  of 
laughter,  thou  art  the  blessed  boundary  line  between  man 
and  beast,  and  each  wayward  wa.ve  of  thine  doth  catch  and 
drown  some  fitful  fiend  of  care. 

Do  not  tell  me  you  have  got  to  be  rich.  We  have  a  false 
standard  of  these  things  in  the  United  States.  We  think  that 
a  man  must  be  great,  that  he  must  be  famous,  that  he  must 
be  wealthy.  That  is  all  a  mistake.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be 
rich,  to  be  great,  to  be  famous,  to  be  powerful,  in  order  to 
be  happy.  The  happy  man  is  the  free  man.  Happiness  is 


230  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

the  legal  tender  of  the  soul.     Joy  is  wealth.    Liberty  is  joy. 

A  little  while  ago  I  stood  by  the  grave  of  the  old  Napo- 
leon. It  is  a  magnificent  sepulcher  of  gilt  and  gold,  fit  almost 
for  a  dead  deity.  I  gazed  upon  the  sarcophagus  of  rare  and 
nameless  marble  in  which  rests  at  last  the  ashes  of  the 
restless  man.  I  leaned  upon  the  balustrade  and  thought  of 
all  the  career  of  the  greatest  soldier  of  the  modern  world. 
I  saw  him  walking  upon  the  banks  of  the  Seine  contemplat- 
ing suicide.  I  saw  him  quelling  the  mob  in  the  streets  of 
Paris.  I  saw  him  at  the  head  of  the  army  of  Italy.  I  saw 
him  crossing  the  bridge  of  Lodi  with  the  tricolor  in  his 
hand.  I  saw  him  in  Egypt  in  the  shadows  of  the  pyramids. 
I  saw  him  conquer  the  Alps  and  mingle  the  eagles  of 
France  with  the  eagles  of  the  crags.  I  saw  him  in  Russia, 
where  the  infantry  of  the  snows  and  the  cavalry  of  the  wild 
blasts  scattered  his  legions  like  winter's  withered  leaves.  I 
saw  him  at  Leipsic  in  defeat  and  disaster,  driven  by  a  million 
bayonetes,  clutched  like  a  beast,  banished  to  Elba.  I  saw 
him  escape  and  retake  an  empire  by  the  magnificent  force  of 
his  genius.  I  saw  him  upon  the  frightful  field  of  Waterloo, 
where  Chance  and  Fate  combined  to  wreck  the  fortunes  of 
their  former  king,  and  I  saw  him  a  prisoner  on  the  rock  at 
St.  Helena,  with  his  arms  calmly  folded  behind  his  back, 
gazing  steadfastly  out  upon  the  sad  and  solemn  sea. 

And  I  thought  of  all  the  widows  and  orphans  he  had 
made;  of  all  the  tears  that  had  been  shed  for 
his  glory;  of  the  only  woman  who  had  ever  loved 
him  torn  from  his  heart  by  the  ruthless  hand  of 
ambition.  And  I  said,  I  would  rather  have  been  a  poor 
French  peasant  and  worn  wooden  shoes,  I  would  rather  have 
lived  in  a  hut  with  the  vines  growing  over  the  door  and 
the  grapes  growing  purple  in  the  kisses  of  the  autumn  sun, 
with  my  loving  wife  knitting  by  my  side  as  the  day  died  out 
of  the  sky,  with  my  children  upon  my  knees  and  their  arms 
about  my  neck;  yes,  I  would  rather  have  been  that  poor 
peasant  and  gone  down  to  the  tongueless  silence  of  the 
dreamless  dust,  than  to  have  been  that  imperial  impersona- 
tion of  force  and  murder  known  as  Napoleon  the  Great. 

No,  it  is  not  necessary  to  be  great  to  be  happy.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  be  rich  to  be  generous.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
be  powerful  to  be  just.  When  the  world  is  free  this 


ROBERT   G.    INGERSOLL.  231 

question  will  be  settled.  A  new  creed  will  be  written.  In 
that  creed  there  will  be  but  one  word,  "Liberty."  Oh,  Liberty, 
float  not  forever  in  the  far  horizon,  remain  not  forever  in 
the  dream  of  the  enthusiast,  dwell  not  forever  in  the  song 
of  the  poet,  but  come  and  make  thy  home  among  the  children 
of  men. 

I  know  not  what  thoughts,  what  discoveries,  what  inven- 
tions may  leap  from  the  brain  of  the  world,  I  know  not  what 
garments  of  glory  may  be  woven  by  the  years  to  come,  I  can- 
not dream  of  the  victories  to  be  won  upon  the  fields  of 
thought.  But  I  do  know,  that  coming  from  the  infinite  sea 
of  the  future  there  shall  never  touch  this  bank  and  shoal  of 
time,  a  richer  gift,  a  rarer  blessing  than  Liberty. 


232  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


LUHBER  ON  THE  VOYAGE  OF  LIFE. 


JEROME  K.   JEROME. 
(Adapted   from    his    "Three    Men   in   a   Boat.") 

In  Jerome  K.  Jerome's  "Three  Men  in  a  Boat,"  the  author 
and  his  two  companions,  named  Harris  and  George,  having 
planned  a  trip  up  the  River  Thames,  set  about  making  a  list 
of  the  things  needed  for  the  voyage.  The  first  list  had  to  be 
discarded.  It  was  found  that  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
Thames  would  not  allow  of  the  navigation  of  a  boat  suffi- 
ciently large  to  take  the  things  they  had  set  down  as  indis- 
pensable. 

"George  said,"  continues  the  writer,  "You  know  we  are  on 
the  wrong  track  altogether.  We  must  not  think  of  the  things 
we  could  do  with,  but  only  of  the  things  that  we  can't  do 
without." 

"George  conies  out  really  quite  sensible  at  times.  You'd 
be  surprised.  I  call  that  downright  wisdom,  not  merely  as 
regards  the  present  case,  but  with  reference  to  our  trip  up 
the  river  of  life,  generally.  How  many  people,  on  that 
voyage,  load  up  the  boat  till  it  is  ever  in  danger  of  swamp- 
ing with  a  store  of  foolish  things  which  they  think  essential 
to  the  pleasure  and  comfort  of  the  trip,  but  which  are  really 
only  useless  lumber. 

"How  they  pile  the  poor  little  craft  mast-high  with  fine 
clothes  and  big  houses;  with  useless  servants,  and  a  host  of 
swell  friends  that  do  not  care  twopence  for  them,  and  that 
they  do  not  care  three  ha'pence  for;  with  expensive  enter- 
tainments that  nobody  enjoys,  with  formalities  and  fashions, 
with  pretense  and  ostentation,  and  with — oh,  heaviest,  mad- 
dest lumber  of  all! — the  dread  of  what  will  my  neighbor 
think;  with  luxuries  that  only  cloy,  with  pleasures  that  bore, 
with  empty  show  that,  like  the  criminal's  iron  crown  of  yore, 
makes  to  bleed  and  swoon  the  aching  head  that  wears  it! 

"It  is  lumber,  man — all  lumber!  Throw  it  overboard.  It 
makes  the  boat  so  heavy  to  pull,  you  nearly  faint  at  the  oars. 
It  makes  it  so  cumbersome  and  dangerous  to  manage,  you 
never  know  a  moment's  freedom  from  anxiety  and  care, 
never  gain  a  moment's  rest  for  dreamy  laziness — no  time  to 


JEROME    K.    JEROME.  233 

watch  the  windy  shadows  skimming  lightly  o'er  the  shallows, 
or  the  glittering  sunbeams  flitting  in  and  out  among  the  rip- 
ples, or  the  great  trees  by  the  margin  looking  down  at  their 
own  image,  or  the  woods  all  green  and  golden,  or  the  lilies 
white  and  yellow,  or  the  somber- waving  rushes,  or  the  sedges, 
or  the  orchids,  or  the  blue  forget-me-nots. 

"Throw  the  lumber  over,  man!  Let  your  boat  of  life  be  light, 
packed  with  only  what  you  need — a  homely  home  and  simple 
pleasures,  one  or  two  friends,  worth  the  name,  some  one  to 
love  and  some  one  to  love  you,  a  cat,  a  dog,  and  enough  to 
eat  and  to  wear. 

"You  will  find  the  boat  easier  to  pull  then,  and  it  will  not 
be  so  liable  to  upset.  You  will  have  time  to  think  as  well  as 
to  work.  Time  to  drink  in  life's  sunshine — time  to  listen  to 
the  Aeolian  music  that  the  wind  of  God  draws  from  the 
human  heart  strings  around  us." 


THE  QUEST  FOR  UNEARNED  HAPPINESS. 


DAVID    STARR  JORDAN. 

(Condensed  from  an  article  in  the  New  York  Independent.) 

Among  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  so  our  fathers  have 
taught  us,  are  these  three,  "Life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness."  So  long  as  a  man  is  alive  and  free,  he  will,  in 
one  way  or  another,  seek  that  which  gives  him  pleasure,  and 
temptation  promises  pleasure  without  the  effort  of  earning  it. 
This  promise  has  never  been  fulfilled  in  all  the  history  of 
all  the  ages,  and  it  is  time  that  men  were  coming  to  realize 
that  fact.  There  are  many  short  cuts  to  happiness  which 
temptation  commonly  offers  to  us.  Let  me  enumerate  some 
of  them: 

Indolence  would  secure  the  pleasures  of  rest  without  the 
effort  that  justifies  rest  and  makes  it  welcome.  "Life  drives 
him  hard"  who  has  nothing  in  all  the  world  to  do.  The  dry 
rot  of  ennui,  the  vague  self-disgust  of  those  "who  know  so  ill 
to  deal  with  time/'  is  the  outcome  of  idleness.  It  is  only 


234  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

where  even  such  poor  effort  is  impossible  that  absolute 
misery  can  be  found.  The  indolent  ennui  of  the  hopelessly 
rich  and  the  indolent  misery  of  the  helplessly  poor  have 
this  much  in  common.  The  quest  for  happiness  is  become  a 
passive  one,  waiting  for  the  joy  that  never  comes.  But  life 
can  never  remain  passive,  and  a  thousand  ills  come  in  through 
the  open  door  of  unresisted  temptation. 

Gambling,  in  all  its  forms,  is  the  desire  to  get  something 
for  nothing.  Burglary  and  larceny  have  the  same  motive. 
Along  this  line  the  difference  between  gambling  and  stealing 
is  one  fixed  by  social  customs  and  prejudices.  In  society, 
money  is  power.  It  is  the  key  that  unlocks  stored  up  power, 
whether  of  ourselves  or  of  others.  It  is  said  that  the  "love 
of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil."  The  love  of  money  in  this 
sense  is  the  love  of  power.  But  it  is  not  true  that  the  love 
of  power  is  the  root  of  all  evil.  To  love  power  is  natural  to 
the  strong.  The  desire  to  get  money  without  earning  it  is  the 
root  of  all  evil.  To  get  something  for  nothing,  in  whatever 
way,  demoralizes  all  effort.  The  man  who  gets  a  windfall 
spends  his  days  watching  the  wind.  The  man  who  wins  in  a 
lottery  spends  his  gains  in  more  lottery  tickets.  The  man 
who  loses  in  a  lottery  does  the  same  thing.  In  all  forms 
of  gambling,  to  win  is  to  lose,  for  the  winner's  integrity  is 
placed  in  jeopardy.  To  lose  is  to  lose,  for  the  loser  throws 
good  money  after  bad,  and  that,  too,  is  demoralizing.  In  all 
appeals  to  chance,  there  is  open  the  door  to  fraud.  The  lust 
for  gambling,  the  spirit  of  speculation,  whatever  form  it  may 
take,  is  adverse  to  individual  prosperity.  It  makes  for  per- 
sonal degeneration  and  therefore  for  social  decay. 

In  the  hotbed  of  modern  society  there  is  a  tendency  to 
precocious  growth.  Precocious  virtue  is  bad  enough,  but  pre- 
cocious vice  is  most  monstrous.  What  is  worth  having  must 
bide  its  time.  The  children  on  our  streets  grow  old  before 
their  time.  There  is  no  fate  more  horrible  because  there  is 
none  more  hopeless.  Were  it  not  for  the  influx  of  new  life 
from  the  farms,  our  cities  would  be  depopulated.  Strive  as  we 
may  we  can  not  save  our  children  from  the  corrosion  of  vul- 
garity and  obscene  suggestion.  The  subtle  incitement  to  vice 
comes  to  every  home.  Its  effort  is  shown  in  precocious  knowl- 
edge, the  loss  of  the  bloom  of  youth,  the  quest  for  pleasures 
unearned  because  sought  for  out  of  time.  Vulgarity  has  in 


DAVID  STARR  JORDAN.  235 

some  measure  its  foundation  in  precocity.  It  is  an  expression 
of  arrested  development  in  matters  of  good  taste  or  good  char- 
acter. We  find  the  corrosion  of  vulgarity  everywhere  and  its 
poison  enters  every  home.  The  streets  of  our, cities  are  cov- 
ered with  its  evidences,  our  newspapers  are  redolent  with  it, 
our  story-books  reek  with  it,  our  schools  are  tainted  by  it,  and 
we  can  not  keep  it  out  of  our  homes  or  our  churches  or  our 
colleges.  It  is  the  hope  of  civilization  that  our  republic  may 
outgrow  the  toleration  of  vulgarity,  but  we  have  a  long  strug- 
gle before  us  before  this  can  be  done. 


236  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ARRAIGNMENT  OF  flORMONISfl. 


CHARLES    B.    LANDIS,    OF    INDIANA. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January 

24,  1900.) 

Pages  might  be  written  of  the  violation  of  the  compact 
by  which  Utah  was  given  a  star.  Ah,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  star 
is  a  fallen  star;  it  does  not  shine  with  the  brilliancy  and 
luster  of  its  sister  stars.  It  shines  by  cunning  and  by  deceit, 
by  treachery,  by  fraud.  It  speaks  trivially  of  crime  and  a  vio- 
lation of  the  most  solemn  compact  ever  made  between  a  terri- 
tory and  the  Union.  And  I  charge  here  that  Utah  came  in 
as  a  result  of  a  deliberate  conspiracy  to  free  her  people  from 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  federal  authority  and  then  enable  them 
to  live  their  religion  unhindered. 

In  1896  Mr.  Roberts  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and 
the  church  disciplined  and  defeated  him,  because  the  time 
was  not  then  ripe  for  a  polygamist  to  come  to  the  American 
Congress.  He  became  a  candidate  again  in  1898  and  the  man 
who  placed  him  before  the  convention  stated  that  he  ran  by 
permission  of  the  church.  In  1898  we  were  engaged  in  a 
war  with  a  foreign  foe.  American  manhood  was  away  from 
home  or  all  absorbed  in  country.  Valor  was  at  war  and  virtue 
was  at  prayer.  The  North  and  the  §outh  were  under  one 
flag.  They  hoped,  in  this  general  condition  of  magnanimity, 
to  come  back,  and  it  was  then  this  perjured  cheat  attempted 
to  crawl  in.  Sir,  it  came  by  itself,  but  it  will  be  hurled  back 
boldly  and  in  the  open  day  by  the  outraged  indignation  of 
the  American  people.  And  across  your  threshold  will  be 
written,  in  letters  large  enough  to  be  read  from  the  national 
capital  to  the  Mormon  temple,  "No  polygamist  shall  ever  sit 
as  a  member  of  the  American  Congress." 

Mr.  Roberts  has  sneered  at  a  good  and  noble  woman — Miss 
Helen  Gould — who  helped  organize  this  movement  against 
him.  When  our  boys  fell  from  disease  or  in  battle  her  mil- 
lions went.  And  who  knows  but  that  to-day  the  same  name 
that  was  spoken  so  reverently  at  Santiago  and  Montauk  Point 
by  American  soldiery,  is  lisped  in  reverence  out  there  in 
Utah  by  those  women,  doomed  by  brutal  bigots  to  the  belief 


CHARLES   B.   LANDIS.  237 

that  their  celestial  exaltation  will  be  in  proportion  as  they 
ministered  to  the  rotten  and  lustful  notions  of  a  corrupt 
priesthood. 

I  say  that  the  people  of  this  country  expect  us  to  turn  him 
back.  The  country  is  waiting  for  us  to  act.  The  people  are 
waiting  off  in  New  England,  whose  homes  have  been  made  a 
pattern  for  this  continent.  They  are  waiting  in  the  broad 
sweep  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  a  section  of  the  country 
purged  of  this  very  infamy  half  a  century  ago.  They  are 
waiting  in  the  new  States  of  the  West,  States  whose  territory 
has  been  invaded  and  whose  atmosphere  has  been  poisoned 
by  this  very  plague.  And,  "Way  Down  South  in  Dixie,"  where 
honor  is  religion,  where  gallantry  is  law,  and  virtue  is  the 
high  ideal  of  beautiful  womanhood,  States  are  waiting  to-day, 
waiting  for  American  chivalry  to  speak. 


THE  GREAT  PERIL  OF  UNRESTRICTED  IfiniGRATION. 


HENRY    CABOT   LODGE. 
(In  the  United   States  Senate,   1898.) 

The  injury  of  unrestricted  immigration  to  American  wages 
and  American  standards  of  living  is  sufficiently  plain,  and  is 
bad  enough,  but  the  danger  which  this  immigration  threatens 
to  the  quality  of  our  citizenship  is  far  worse.  That  which  it 
concerns  us  to  know,  and  which  is  more  vital  to  us  as  a 
people  than  all  possible  questions  of  tariff  or  currency,  is 
whether  the  quality  of  our  citizenship  is  endangered  by  the 
present  course  and  character  of  immigration  to  the  United 
States. 

That  which  identities  a  race  and  sets  it  apart  from  others 
is  not  to  be  found  merely  or  utimately  in  its  physical  appear- 
ance,, its  institutions,  its  laws,  its  literature,  or  even  its  lan- 
guage. These  are  in  the  best  analysis  only  the  expression 


238  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

or  evidence  of  race.  The  achievements  of  the  intellect  pass 
easily  from  people  to  people.  The  telephone,  invented  but 
yesterday,  is  used  to-day  in  China,  in  Australia,  or  in  South 
Africa  as  freely  as  in  the  United  States. 

You  can  take  a  Hindoo  and  give  him  the  highest  educa- 
tion the  world  can  afford.  He  has  a  keen  intelligence.  He 
will  absorb  the  learning  of  Oxford,  he  will  acquire  the  man- 
ners and  habits  of  England,  he  may  sit  in  the  British  par- 
liament, but  you  cannot  make  him  an  Englishman;  yet  he, 
like  his  conqueror,  is  of  the  great  Indo-European  family. 
What,  then,  is  this  matter  of  race  which  separates  the  Eng- 
lishman from  the  Hindoo,  and  the  American  from  the  Indian? 
It  is  something  deeper  and  more  fundamental  than  anything 
which  concerns  the  intellect. 

On  the  moral  qualities  of  the  English  speaking  race,  there- 
fore, rest  our  history,  our  victories,  and  all  our  future.  There 
is  only  one  way  in  which  you  can  lower  those  qualities  or 
weaken  those  characteristics,  and  that  is  by  breeding  them 
out.  If  a  lower  race  mixes  with  a  higher,  history  teaches  us 
that  the  lower  race  will  prevail,  when  the  two  strains  ap- 
proach equality  in  numbers.  In  other  words,  when  you  begin 
to  pour  in  in  unlimited  numbers  people  of  alien  or  lower 
races,  of  less  social  efficiency  and  less  moral  force,  you  are 
running  the  most  frightful  risk  that  a  people  can  run.  More 
precious,  therefore,  even  than  forms  of  government  are  the 
mental  and  moral  qualities  which  we  call  our  race.  While 
those  stand  unimpaired  all  is  safe.  When  those  decline  all 
is  imperiled.  They  are  exposed  to  but  a  single  danger,  and 
that  is  by  changing  the  quality  of  our  race  and  citizenship 
through  the  wholesale  infusion  of  races  whose  traditions  and 
inheritances,  whose  thoughts  and  whose  beliefs  are  alien  to 
ours. 

The  danger  has  begun.  It  is  small  as  yet,  comparatively 
speaking,  but  it  is  large  enough  to  warn  us  to  act  while  there 
is  yet  time  and  while  it  can  be  done  easily  and  efficiently. 
There  lies  the  peril  at  the  portals  of  our  land;  there  is  press- 
ing the  tide  of  unrestricted  immigration. 

In  careless  strength,  with  generous  hand,  we  have  kept  our 
gates  wide  open  to  all  the  world.  If  we  do  not  close  them, 
we  should  at  least  place  sentinels  beside  them,  to  challenge 


HENRY   CABOT   LODGE.  239 

those  who  would  pass  through.  The  gates  which  admit  men 
to  the  United  States  and  to  citizenship  in  this  great  Republic 
should  no  longer  be  left  unguarded. 


ON  THE  APPROPRIATION  FOR  THE  SPANISH  WAR. 


BENTON  MCMILLAN,  OF  TENNESSEE. 

(Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  8,  1898.) 

Mr.  Speaker,  as  is  known  to  those  who  have  associated 
with  me  here,  I  believe  in  economy  in  public  expenditures; 
but,  not  waiving  one  jot  or  tittle  of  that  faith,  I  give  my  most 
hearty  support  to  this  appropriation.  We  stand  here  to-day, 
Mr.  Speaker,  representing  what  I  think  we  can  proudly  boast 
is  the  greatest  and  most  potent  nation  upon  which  the  sun 
shines  from  its  rising  to  its  setting — a  nation  that  has  sprung 
into  existence  and  within  one  hundred  years  reached  a  power 
that  no  other  nation  ever  reached  in  its  whole  existence. 
Rome  did  not  reach  it  in  four  hundred  years,  nor  the  Re- 
public of  Venice  in  eleven  hundred.  What  an  exalted  privi- 
lege to  raise  one's  voice,  though  feeble,  in  behalf  of  such  a 
people,  to  speak  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  that  people  in 
saying  that  whilst  we  are  the  most  powerful  nation  on  earth, 
we  are  too  proud  to  submit  to  a  wrong  and  we  are  too  just  to 
inflict  a  wrong. 

The  American  people  do  not  want  war  with  any  other  peo- 
ple. We  were  taught  by  our  ancestors  not  to  go  out  of  our 
glorious  path  one  inch  to  bring  on  a  conflict.  But  the  same 
wise  ancestry  also  taught  us  not  to  go  out  of  our  path  one- 
thousandth  part  of  one  inch  to  escape  a  conflict  where  injus- 
tice was  about  to  be  done  to  the  humblest  American  citizen 
or  the  great  American  flag. 


240  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Coming  from  a  portion  of  the  South  that  was  recently  en- 
gaged in  conflict  with  the  Union,  I  think  I  speak  the  senti- 
ment of  every  man  and  every  boy,  of  every  woman  and  every 
child  in  that  section,  when  I  assure  my  distinguished  friend 
from  Massachusetts  that,  numbering  about  the  same  popula- 
tion that  his  State  does,  if  a  conflict  does  come,  Massachusetts 
will  send  no  soldier  to  the  front  that  will  not  find  one  from 
Tennessee  to  keep  step  with  him  and  to  go  shoulder  to 
shoulder  to  the  conflict. 

My  friend  from  Texas  has  made  a  beautiful  allusion  to  the 
Alamo.  I  want  to  tell  him  that  if  the  conflict  thickens  and 
men's  courage  is  tried  again,  and  new  Alamos  are  to  be  con- 
secrated, other  Tennesseeans  as  brave  as  that  great  Tennes- 
seean,  Crockett  or  Travis,  who  made  the  Alamo  immortal, 
will  be  there  to  again  shed  their  blood  and  again  die  for  the 
glory  of  that  flag,  Mr.  Speaker,  which  hangs  over  your  head 
and  the  immortal  principles  that  it  emblemizes. 

If  another  "New  Orleans"  is  to  be  fought;  if  glory  is  again 
to  be  wrested  from  disaster  and  victory  from  defeat,  as  in 
1815,  Tennessee  will  train  up  another  Jackson  to  lead  and 
other  Tennesseeans  to  follow,  as  in  the  war  of  1812,  and 
maintain  her  prestige  as  the  "Old  Volunteer  State." 

Finally,  sir,  if  a  new  "Kings  Mountain"  should  have  to  be 
stormed  and  taken  as  in  the  Revolution,  the  sons  of  Sevier, 
Shelby,  and  their  compatriots  stand  ready  to  do  and  die  as 
their  sires  did  for  freedom  and  the  right! 

That  nation,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  a  rash  nation  that  wantonly 
provokes  the  wrath  of  the  American  people.  Let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  when  we  were  not  one-third  as  strong  as  we 
are  to-day — when  the  war  between  the  States  came  up  over  a 
third  of  a  century  ago — it  was  not  one  hundred  and  fifty  days 
before  the  Confederate  States  and  the  United  States  had 
each  an  army  in  the  field  that  could  have  met  and  conquered 
any  other  army  that  was  ever  mustered  in  the  history  of 
mankind. 

If  that  was  so  when  we  were  divided;  if  that  was  so  when 
brother  was  arrayed  against  brother  and  father  arrayed 
against  son,  when  we  were  not  more  than  a  third  as  strong 
in  great  national  power  as  we  are  to-day,  what  can  we  not 
do  as  a  united  South,  a  united  North,  a  united  East,  and  a 
united  West  marching  with  that  glorious  flag  as  our  emblem, 


BENTON   MCMILLAN.  241 

the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  our  guide,  and  with 
five  million  of  proud  American  soldiers  ready  to  die  for  the 
American  government? 


MEN  AND  MEMORIES  OF  THE  SOUTHLAND. 

MAYOR  T.   J.   POWELL. 

(Extract    from    an    Address    of    Welcome    to    Veterans,    at    Fort 
Worth,    Texas,    May  22,    1900.) 

The  most  momentous  century  of  time  is  nearly  ended  and 
our  faces  are  turned  toward  the  east  awaiting  the  sunrise  of 
a  new  one.  Your  life's  work  is  nearly  done,  and  the  superb 
citizenship  of  our  fair  Southland,  which  spring  from  your 
loins,  will  take  up  the  problems  of  life  and  government,  en- 
nobled and  strengthened  by  the  loyalty,  courage  and  devotion 
of  its  ancestry.  When  the  last  leaf  is  turned  and  the  volume 
is  carefully  and  tenderly  placed  in  position,  that  portion  de- 
voted to  our  Civil  War  will  hold  a  record  to  which  your  chil- 
dren's children  will  turn  and  stand  in  amazement  before  the 
sublimity  of  your  struggle  and  the  undimmed  lustre 
of  your  fame.  There  they  will  find  the  seed  of  the  Puri- 
tan and  the  seed  of  the  Cavalier,  struggling  for  supremacy 
— the  conviction  of  the  one  battling  against  the  institutions 
of  the  other.  They  will  follow  the  two  streams  of  our  na- 
tional life  meandering  from  Plymouth  Rock  and  Georgetown 
into  that  irrepressible,  unavoidable  clash  that  merged  them 
into  a  common  channel  amidst  the  awful  horrors  and  carnage 
of  war.  They  will  find  the  institutions  of  the  Cavalier,  not 
lost,  but  remodeled  by  the  convictions  of  the  Puritan,  and 
the  convictions  of  the  Puritan  not  altered  but  strengthened 
and  broadened  by  the  quickened  and  multiplied  stream  of 
American  manhood — sublime  in  its  amalgamated  virtue  and 
power. 

On  July  21,  1861,  the  first  real  conflict  of  the  war  was 
fought  on  the  battle  field  of  Bull  Run.  How  easily  you  can 
recall  the  scene.  The  morning  sun  found  the  federal  forces 


242  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

on  the  hill  at  Centreville.  The  flower  of  the  Southern  army 
was  at  Stone  House,  on  the  other  side  of  Bull  Run.  Thous- 
ands of  gay  equipages  trailed  in  the  rear  of  the  Union  array — 
camp  followers  who  were  there  to  witness  the  end  of  the 
war,  but  when  night  came  they  were  scattered  to  the  winds 
in  a  mad  and  riotous  rush  back  to  the  national  capital,  while 
victory  crowned  the  Confederate  arms.  As  a  boy  I  have 
hunted  over  the  historic  fields  and  ofttimes  listened  in  won- 
dering awe  to  the  recital  of  that  battle  by  those  who  wit- 
nessed it.  There  it  was  that  Jackson  earned  the  name  of 
"Stonewall,"  a  name  that  gleams  in  the  night  of  our  history 
like  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  o'er  a  mountain  peak.  All 
the  hot,  fierce  fire  of  the  noonday  sun  and  all  the  mildness 
of  the  midnight  moon  were  mingled  in  the  character  of 
"Stonewall"  Jackson.  He  was  a  mosaic,  combining  the  con- 
victions of  the  Puritan,  predominated  by  the  blood  of  a 
Cavalier.  How  proudly  we  recall  him  in  his  marvelous  fights 
— a  flashing  sword — sweeping  irresistibly  the  enemy  from  his 
pathway.  How  tenderly  we  remember  him,  wrestling  in 
prayer,  a  very  god  of  war.  Even  now  our  eyes  grow  dim 
at  the  recollection  of  that  dark  night  near  Chancellorsville 
when  he  fell  at  the  hands  of  his  own  men,  and  "crossed  over 
the  river  to  rest  under  the  shade  of  thq  trees." 

Another  face  looks  at  me  from  memory  as  I  speak.  I  re- 
member upon  a  June  day  in  1876  climbing  a  Virginia  moun- 
tain with  a  fair-haired  daughter  of  a  Confederate  veteran  by 
my  side.  We  stopped  to  beg  a  drink  of  water  from  a  cabin 
near  its  summit.  And  there  upon  a  rude  mantel  was  a  face 
framed  in  mountain  flowers.  For  a  moment  we  stood  almost 
breathless,  for  in  that  rugged  feature  lay  the  volume  of  the 
fallen  Confederacy.  Since  then  I  have  seen  that  same  face 
in  gilded  frame  upon  the  frescoed  walls  of  the  rich — gazed 
upon  its  grand  outline  in  marble  and  bronze  in  many  public 
places  in  the  South,  where  in  heroic  size  it  stands  a  sad 
sentinel  over  the  bivouac  of  the  Confederacy,  but  never  has  it 
so  filled  my  bosom  with  reverence  and  love  as  when  in  that 
mountain  cabin  I  looked  into  the  face  of  Robert  E.  Lee.  He 
was  the  embodiment  of  all  the  genius,  virtue  and  courage  of 
the  Cavalier.  A  purer  man  never  lived.  He  was  the  inspira- 
tion, the  hope  and  the  shield  of  the  Confederacy.  His  mili- 
tary genius  grows  brighter  and  brighter  as  the  years  increase, 


T.   J.    POWELL.  243 

and  will  continue  so  until  the  history  proclaims  him  the 
central  figure  of  the  year.  He  is  the  greatest  memory  of  the 
South. 

To  enumerate  further  would  be  folly,  for  the  roll  of  honor 
embraces  all  who  bared  their  breasts  in  the  struggle  or  guided 
its  fortunes  in  the  council  chamber.  And  now  as  I  again  bid 
you  welcome,  a  vision  of  your  old  homes  comes  to  me,  and  the 
rippling  words  of  an  old  song  bubbles  to  my  lips: 

"Turn  backward,  turn  backward,  oh,  time  in  your  flight, 
Make  me  a  boy  again  just  for  to-night." 

Fair,  beautiful  Southland!  You  are  the  idol  of  our  wake- 
ful moments,  the  soul  of  reverie  and  the  genius  of  our  dreams. 
We,  thy  children,  celebrate  thy  valor  and  thy  history.  Around 
thy  mountain  peaks  lay  the  dreams  of  our  youth,  and  lost  in 
thy  valleys  are  the  voices  of  our  childhood.  We  touch  upon 
the  harp  of  your  history,  and  lo!  the  soul  is  moved  with  the 
music  of  thy  fame.  In  thy  bosom  sleep  loved  and  lost  com- 
rades, covered  with  a  wilderness  of  bloom  and  perfume. 
Fair,  fair  Southland!  Beautiful  in  thy  suffering;  radiant  in 
thy  renewed  greatness;  may  God's  richest  blessing  rest  with 
thee  and  thy  children  forever. 


244  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


TEXAS  AND  THE  TEXANS. 


WM.  L.   PRATHER, 

(President  of  the  University  of  Texas.) 

(From  an  address  at  the  commencement  exercises  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  June,  1900.) 

I  believe  that  in  point  of  talent,  inherent  strength  and 
independence  of  character,  the  population  of  Texas  is  un- 
surpassed upon  the  face  of  the  globe.  When  to  the  race 
of  heroes  who  founded  this  Empire  of  the  West,  was  added 
that  noble  increment  of  the  very  flower  of  the  Southern  man- 
hood and  womanhood  from  every  State  of  the  South,  as  a 
result  of  the  Civil  War  (and  this  was  supplemented  by  those 
enterprising  spirits  from  the  North  and  Bast  and  from  be- 
yond the  seas,  who  came  seeking  broader  fields  for  the  em- 
ployment of  their  restless  energies),  we  find  gathered  within 
the  borders  of  Texas  a  heterogeneous  population  possessing 
the  highest  elements  of  individual  strength  and  excellence. 
They  need  only  the  blending  influence  of  a  common  edu- 
cation, and  the  welding  power  of  lofty  patriotism,  to  make 
a  homogeneous  people  whose  combined  strength  will  deliver 
itself  with  Titanic  power  upon  the  great  problems  of  the 
coming  century. 

The  various  States  of  the  Union  contributed  to  the  early 
settlement  of  Texas  a  population  already  "matured  and  expe- 
rienced in  the  pursuits  of  a  high  civilization,  largely  inter- 
mixed with  cultivated  talent,  native  capacity,  shrewdness  and 
strength;"  a  people  well  fitted  to  create  and  successfully  main- 
tain a  new  government  amidst  the  trials  through  which  it  was 
destined  to  pass.  "A  sparse  population  were  monarchs  of  an 
almost  boundless  domain,  abounding  in  plenty  and  teeming 
with  promise  of  a  glorious  future.  Land  was  given  to  every 
citizen,  not  by  acres,  but  my  miles  and  leagues.  Supreme 
upon  their  princely  domain,  open  hospitality  and  independ- 
ence of  character,  like  that  of  feudal  barons,  distinguished 
the  early  settlers  of  Texas.  Accustomed  to  danger  and  inured 
to  hardships,  they  were  sturdy,  brave  and  generous." 


WM.   L.    PRATHER.  245 

Such  was  the  environment,  and  such  were  the  characteris- 
tics, of  a  people  which  gave  birth  to  new  ideas  in,  government, 
furnished  new  standards  of  heroism,  and  afforded  scope  for 
the  advancement  of  new  theories  of  law. 

From  this  marvelous  condition  of  things  the  unrepressed 
genius  of  the  early  Texans,  First  among  the  English  speaking 
race  abolished  imprisonment  for  debt;  in  the  administration 
of  remedial  justice  in  the  courts,  First  abolished  all  distinc- 
tions between  law  and  equity,  and  gave  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury  in  cases  in  equity  as  well  as  in  law;  First  established 
the  true  equality  of  woman  with  man,  by  recognizing  her 
separate  and  community  rights  of  property;  First  evolved 
for  the  protection  of  the  family  the  great  idea  of  the  home- 
stead and  exemption  laws;  and,  finally,  laid  broad  and  deep 
the  foundation  for  the  free  education  of  the  people. 

President  Lamar,  himself  a  scholar,  a  poet,  and  a  states- 
man, in  his  message  to  the  Third  Congress  of  Texas  in  1839 
truthfully  said:  "Cultivated  mind  is  the  guardian  genius  of 
democracy,  and  while  guided  and  controlled  by  virtue,  is  the 
noblest  attribute  of  man.  It  is  the  only  dictator  that  freemen 
acknowledge,  and  the  only  security  that  freemen  desire." 
Resting  upon  this  profound  truth,  Texas,  as  a  sovereign  Re- 
public of  freemen,  recognized  it  as  her  high  duty  to  provide 
for  the  education  of  her  children.  Her  proud  record  is  unique. 
She  alone  among  the  States  of  this  Union  achieved  her 
independence  single-handed:  she  alone  had  a  separate  na- 
tional existence.  My  countrymen,  it  is  something  to  have  a 
history  all  your  own;  and  such  a  glorious  history!  "Athens 
had  her  Marathon,  and  Sparta  her  Thermopylae;  but  San 
Jacinto  rivaled  the  one,  and  the  Alamo  excelled  the  other; 
and  both  legends  blaze  proudly  on  the  stainless  escutcheon  of 
Texas." 


246  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  LARK  IN  THE  GOLD  FIELDS. 


CHARLES  READE. 

The  house  was  thatched  and  whitewashed  and  English  was 
written  on  it  and  on  every  foot  of  ground  around  it.  A  furze- 
bush  had  been  planted  by  the  door.  Vertical  oak  palings 
were  the  fence,  with  a  five-barred  gate  in  the  middle.  From 
the  little  plantation  all  the  magnificent  trees  and  shrubs  of 
Australia  had  been  excluded  with  amazing  resolution  and  con- 
sistency, and  in  their  stead  oak  and  ash  reigned,  safe  from 
overtowering  rivals.  At  the  back  of  the  house,  on  the  oval 
grass  plot  and  gravel  walk,  were  gathered  thirty  or  forty 
rough  fellows,  most  of  them  diggers,  from  different  parts  of 
the  camp.  In  a  gigantic  cage  was  a  light  brown  bird,  at 
which  they  were  looking.  "Hush!"  cried  one  of  them  pres-. 
ently,  "He  is  going  to  sing!"  and  the  whole  party  had  their 
eyes  turned  with  expectation  toward  the  bird. 

Like  most  singers,  he  kept  them  waiting  a  bit.  But  at  last, 
just  at  noon,  the  little  feathered  exile  began  as  it  were  to 
tune  his  pipes.  The  savage  men  gathered  around  the  cage 
that  moment,  and  amidst  a  dead  stillness  the  bird  uttered 
some  very  uncertain  chirps.  Then  he  seemed  to  revive  his 
memories,  and  call  his  ancient  cadences  back  to  him  one  by 
one.  And  then  the  same  sun  that  had  warmed  his  little 
heart  at  home  came  glowing  down  on  him  here,  and  he  gave 
music  back  for  it  more  and  more,  till  at  last,  amidst  the 
breathless  silence  and  the  glistening  eyes  of  the  rough  diggers 
hanging  on  his  voice,  out  burst  in  that  distant  land  his  Eng- 
lish song. 

It  swelled  his  little  throat,  and  gushed  from  him  with 
thrilling  force  and  plenty,  and  every  time  he  checked  his 
song  to  think  of  its  theme — the  green  meadows,  the  quiet, 
steady  streams,  the  clover  he  first  soared  from,  and  the 
spring  he  loved  so  well — a  loud  sigh  from  many  a  rough 
bosom,  many  a  wild  and  wicked  heart,  told  how  his  listeners 
had  held  their  breath  to  hear  him.  And  when  he  swelled  with 
song  again,  and  poured  out  with  all  his  soul  the  green  mead- 
ows, the  quiet  brooks,  the  honey  clover,  and  the  English 


CHARLES   READE.  247 

spring,  their  lips  trembled,  and  more  than  one  tear  trickled 
from  fierce,  unbridled  hearts,  down  bronzed  and  rugged  cheeks. 
Sweet  Home! 

And  these  shaggy  men,  full  of  oaths  and  strife  and  cupidity, 
had  once  been  white-headed  boys,  and  most  of  them  had 
strolled  about  the  English  fields  with  little  sisters  and  broth- 
ers, and  had  seen  the  lark  rise  and  heard  him  sing  this 
very  song.  The  little  playmates  lay  in  the  churchyard,  and 
they  were  full  of  oaths  and  drink,  and  sin  and  remorse,  but  no 
note  was  changed  in  that  immortal  song.  And  so,  for  a  mo- 
ment or  two,  years  of  vice  rolled  away  like  a  dark  cloud  from 
the  memory,  and  the  past  shone  out  in  that  songshine;  they 
came  back  bright  as  the  immortal  notes  that  lighted  them — 
those  faded  pictures  and  those  fleeted  days;  the  cottage,  the 
old  mother's  tears  when  he  left  her  without  one  grain  of 
sorrow;  the  village  church  and  its  simple  chimes,  the  clover 
field  where  he  played  while  the  lark  praised  God  over  head; 
the  chubby  playmates  that  never  grew  to  be  wicked;  the 
sweet,  sweet  hours  of  youth,  innocence  and  home. 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  STRENUOUS  LIFE. 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT. 

(From    an    address    before   the   Hamilton   Club   of   Chicago,    April 

10,  1899.) 

In  speaking  to  you  I  wish  to  preach  but  the  doctrine  of 
the  strenuous  life;  the  life  of  toil  and  effort;  of  labor  and 
strife;  to  preach  that  highest  form  of  success  which  comes, 
not  to  the  man  who  desires  more  easy  peace,  but  to  the  man 
who  does  not  shrink  from  danger,  from  hardship  or  from 
bitter  toil,  and  who  out  of  these  wins  the  splendid  ultimate 
triumph. 

A  life  of  ignoble  ease,  a  life  of  the  peace  which  springs 
merely  from  lack  of  desire  or  of  power  to  strive  after  great 
things  is  as  little  worthy  of  a  nation  as  of  an  individual. 

We  cannot  sit  huddled  within  our  borders  and  avow  our- 
selves merely  an  assemblage  of  well-to-do  hucksters  who  care 


248  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

nothing  for  what  happens  beyond.  From  the  standpoint  of 
international  honor,  the  argument  is  even  stronger. 

In  the  West  Indies  and  the  Philippines  alike  we  are  con- 
fronted by  the  most  difficult  problems.  It  is  cowardly  to 
shrink  from  solving  them  in  the  proper  way,  for  solved  they 
must  be,  if  not  by  us,  then  by  some  stronger  and  more  man- 
ful race.  I  have  scant  patience  with  those  who  fear  to  main- 
tain the  task  of  governing  the  Philippines,  and  who  openly 
avow  that  they  do  fear  to  undertake  it,  because  of  the  ex- 
pense and  trouble;  but  I  have  even  scantier  patience  with 
those  who  make  a  pretense  of  humanitarianism  to  hide  and 
cover  their  timidity,  and  who  cant  about  "Liberty"  and  the 
"consent  of  the  governed,"  in  order  to  excuse  themselves  for 
their  unwillingness  to  play  the  part  of  men. 

I  preach  to  you,  then,  my  countrymen,  that  our  country  too 
calls  not  for  the  life  of  ease,  but  for  the  life  of  strenuous 
endeavor.  Let  us  shrink  from  no  strife,  moral  and  physical, 
within  or  without  the  nation,  provided  we  are  certain  that  the 
strife  is  justified!  For  it  is  only  through  strife,  through  hard 
and  dangerous  endeavor,  that  we  shall  win  the  goal  of  true 
national  greatness. 


CLEAN  POLITICS. 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT. 

(Adapted    from    an    address    before    the    Chamber    of    Commerce, 
Syracuse,   N.  T.,  February  17,  1899.) 

To  have  clean  politics,  you  have  got  to  have  the  bulk  of  the 
community  interested  in  a  common  sense  way  in  getting 
them.  If  you  get  together  and  ask  for  reform  as  if  it  was 
a  concrete  substance  like  cake,  you  are  not  going  to  get  it. 
If  you  think  you  have  performed  your  duty  by  coming  to- 
gether once  in  a  public  hall  about  three  weeks  before  election 
and  advocating  something  that  you  know  perfectly  well  it  is 
impossible  to  get,  you  are  going  to  be  fooled.  You  have  got 
to  work  and  you  have  got  to  work  practically;  and  you  have 
got  to  remember  that  to  be  practical  does  not  mean  to  be 
foul,  at  least  that  is  my  idea.  A  man  must  strive  contin- 
ually to  make  things  a  little  better;  put  things  on  a  little 
higher  plane.  But  he  has  got  to  remember  the  instruments 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT.  249 

with  which  he  works;  he  has  got  to  remember  the  men  with 
whom  he  serves. 

In  the  first  place,  he  cannot  do  anything  if  he  doesn't  work 
as  an  American.  You  meet  a  certain  number  of  good  peo- 
ple who  will  tell  you  continually  how  much  better  things 
are  done  abroad  than  here.  Well,  I  doubt  if  they  are  right, 
but  I  don't  care  if  they  are.  You  have  got  to  deal  with  what 
we  have  got  here,  and  you  cannot  do  anything  if  you  do  not 
work  as  an  American.  You  have  got  to  work  in  sympathy 
with  the  people  around  you. 

In  the  next  place  you  have  got  to  feel  as  an  American  in 
other  ways.  You  have  got  to  have  ingrained  the  genuine 
democracy,  the  genuine  republicanisms  of  our  institutions,  of 
our  form  of  government  and  habits.  We  cannot  accomplish 
reform  by  the  aid  of  merchant  and  manufacturer  and  busi- 
ness man  alone.  We  have  got  to.  get  reform  by  working  for 
the  eternal  principles  of  right,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  with  all 
who  believe  in  those  principles,  so  that  the  mechanic  and 
the  manufacturer,  the  farmer  and  the  hired  man,  the  banker, 
the  clerk  and  the  artisan  will  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  to 
strive  for  the  same  purpose,  for  the  same  ideal. 

I  ask  you  then  to  strive  for  clean  politics,  not  by  professing 
your  devotion  to  the  cause  on  one  night  or  another  night  of 
the  year,  but  by  taking  more  active,  steady  interest  in  better-' 
ing  our  politics.  I  ask  you  to  strive  for  them,  not  by  refus- 
ing to  recognize  conditions  as  they  are,  but  by  recognizing 
them  and  then  trying  to  make  them  better;  not  to  delude 
yourself  into  the  belief  that  you  need  not  strive  to  better 
matters.  Remember  that  if  you  do  not  strive  to  make  things 
a  little  higher  you  had  better  get  out  of  politics.  If  you  are 
only  content  to  keep  step  with  the  mass  of  your  people  round 
about,  why  then  you  do  not  count  one  way  or  the  other. 

I  ask  you  to  work  for  decent  politics,  to  work  for  clean 
politics,  to  work  in  practical  ways,  not  promising  more  than 
you  can  perform,  but  holding  ever  before  you,  that  if  you 
wish  to  see  this  Republic  continue  a  free  and  great  Republic 
and  if  you  wish  to  see  America  take  her  proper  place  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  you  must  make  up  your  minds  to  the 
fact  that  you  can  see  it  only  when  each  American  remains 
true  to  the  steadfast  idea  of  honesty,  of  courage,  of  manliness 
in  civic  no  less, than  in  social  life. 


250  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  PROPER  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  STATE  TOWARDS 
WEALTH. 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT. 

(From  a  speech  before  the  Independent  Club,   at  Buffalo,   N.   Y., 
May  15,   1899.) 

The  use  and  abuse  of  property.  The  use  of  it  is  to  use  it 
as  any  honest  man  would  use  his  property  in  reference  to  his 
brother.  Its  abuse  is  to  use  it  as  any  honest  man  would  not 
use  his  property  in  reference  to  his  brother.  All  that  our 
Legislatures,  all  that  our  public  bodies  have  to  do  is  to  see 
that  our  policy  as  a  State,  that  the  policy  of  the  Legislatures 
and  the  policy  of  the  Nation  is  shaped  along  these  lines; 
that  when  a  measure  comes  up  in  our  State  Legislature,  it 
shall  be  treated  absolutely  on  its  merits. 

The  rich  man  who  buys  a  privilege  from  a  board  of  a?.der- 
men  for  a  railway  which  he  represents,  the  rich  man  who 
gets  a  privilege  through  the  Legislature  by  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption, for  any  corporation,  is  committing  an  offense  against 
the  community,  which  it  is  possible  may  some  day  have  to 
be  atoned  in  blood  and  destruction,  not  by  him,  not  by  his 
sons,  but  by  you  and  your  sons.  If  I  could  only  make  you 
understand  that,  on  one  side,  and  make  you,  the  mass  of  our 
people,  the  mass  of  our  voters,  understand,  on  the  other, 
that  the  worst  thing  they  can  do  is  to  choose  a  representa- 
tive who  shall  say,  "I  am  against  corporations;  I  am  against 
capital,"  and  not  a  man  who  shall  say,  "I  stand  by  the  Ten 
Commandments;  I  stand  by  doing  equal  justice  to  the  man 
of  means  and  the  man  without  means;  I  stand  by  saying  that 
no  man  shall  be  stolen  from  and  that  no  man  shall  steal 
from  anyone  else;  I  stand  by  saying  that  the  corporations 
shall  not  be  blackmailed,  on  the  one  side,  and  that  the  corpo- 
rations shall  not  acquire  any  improper  power  by  corruption, 
on  the  other;  that  the  corporation  shall  pay  its  full  share  of 
the  public  burdens,  and  that  when  it  does  so  it  shall  be  pro- 
tected in  its  rights  exactly  as  anyone  else  is  protected."  In 
other  words,  the  one  hope  and  one  safety  in  dealing  with  this 
problem  is  to  send  into  our  public  bodies  men  who  shall  be 
honest,  who  shall  realize  their  obligations  to  rich  and  poor 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT.  251 

alike,  and  who  shall  draw  the  line,  not  between  the  rich 
man  and  the  poor  man,  but  between  the  honest  man  and  the 
dishonest  man.  And  when  you  have  made  your  public  men 
take  that  attitude,  not  spasmodically,  not  intermittently,  but 
continuously  and  as  a  regular  thing;  when  you  have  once 
got  them  to  take  that  attitude,  it  will  be  but  a  short  time 
before  you  see  the  disappearance  of  some  of  the  problems 
with  which  we  are  now  threatened;  it  will  be  but  a  short 
time  before  you  see  the  disappearance,  once  for  all,  of  dema- 
gogic attacks  upon  wealth,  upon  the  one  hand,  and  of  cor- 
rupt subserviency  to  the  purposes  of  great  corporations  on 
the  other. 


OUR  FOREIGN  ELEHENT. 


J.   G.    SCHURMAN. 

(Extract    from   response   to    a   toast   at    dinner   of   the    Rochester 
N.  Y.,  Chamber  of  Commerce,  1894.) 

What  foreign  immigrants  have  done  for  this  country  is  now 
a  matter  of  history.  Behold,  in  the  Revolution,  Thomas  Paine, 
the  fiery  prophet  and  the  faith-enkindling  protagonist  of  Inde- 
pendence; James  Wilson,  the  political  and  legal  mentor, 
whose  wisdom  swayed  the  Continental  Congress  as  it  still 
echoes  in  the  Federal  Constitution;  Lafayette,  DeKalb,  Steu- 
ben  and  Pulaski,  those  gallant  knights  of  freedom,  who 
brought  to  General  Washington,  not  only  their  swords,  but 
the  tactics  of  the  best  armies  of  northern  Europe;  and,  crown- 
ing all,  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  supreme  political  genius  of 
his  age,  master  builder  of  the  federal  government,  first  and 
greatest  of  all  our  financiers.  And  as  men  of  foreign  birth 
aided  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Republic,  so  with  one 
consent  they  rallied  to  the  rescue  of  the  Republic  when  the 
native  population  was  rent, in  twain.  After  life's  fitful  fever 
they  sleep  well  at  Anteitam  and  at  Gettysburg  and  on  many 
another  battle  field  of  the  Civil  War.  But  if  between  the 
Gulf  and  the  Great  Lakes  there  is  to-day  but  one  Republic, 
the  home  of  freemen  only,  it  is  because  the  North  in  the 


252  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

dozen  years  preceding  the  election  of  Lincoln  was  rein- 
forced by  millions  of  immigrants  whose  hearts  and  hands,  and 
whose  peaceful  operations  on  farms  and  in  factories,  created 
that  superiority  of  numbers  and  resources  which  through 
Grant's  generalship  finally  subdued  the  .South  by  the  sneer 
force  of  attrition  and  exhaustion,  despite  the  power  of  slavery 
and  cotton  and  the  splendid  strategy  of  Robert  E.  Lee. 

Mr.  Chairman,  my  theme,  and  the  popular  thought  out  of 
which  it  grows,  have  compelled  me  to  divide  our  people 
into  two  classes,  the  native  and  the  foreign-born.  But  for 
my  own  part  I  am  deep  in  the  conviction  that  we  shall  have 
no  healthy  national  life,  that  we  shall  never  see  an  end  or 
even  much  abatement  of  the  ills  of  the  body  politic,  until 
such  artificial  distinctions  are  abolished,  and  all  good  citi- 
zens are  recognized  by  one  another,  and  feel  themselves  to 
be  genuine  Americans.  What  matters  it,  in  Heaven's  name, 
where  a  man  was  born  or  of  what  parents,  be  it  only  that  he 
is  a  man? 

"Worth  makes  the  man,  and  want  of  it,  the  fellow; 
The  rest  is  yall  but  leather  or  prunella." 

Ancient  blood  is  no  guarantee  of  noble  strain.  The  dust 
of  the  earth  in  the  United  States  is  chemically  no  whit  better 
to  make  men  of  than  the  dust  of  the  earth  in  Europe  or 
Australia.  The  noise  and  babble  one  nowadays  hears  on  the 
subject  of  the  nativity  of  our  citizens  is  as  senseless  as  the 
commotion  raised  a  few  years  ago  by  Darwin's  speculations 
on  the  ancestry  of  our  race.  What  matters  it,  I  ask,  whether 
we  be  descended  from  a  degenerate  Adam  or  a  regenerate 
ape? 

The  one  thing  of  moment  is  that  we  shall  now  really  be 
men — persons  who  have  risen  from  degeneracy  and  sloughed 
off  the  ape.  Anything  else  is  an  irrelevant  issue.  The  test 
question  is  not,  Where  did'  you  come  from?  but  this  very 
different  one,  What  manner  of  man  are  you?  And  he  who 
can  satisfactorily  pass  this  examination,  he  is  the  genuine 
American,  whatever  his  ancestry,  whatever  his  nativity,  what- 
ever his  previous  condition. 

I  say  finally  that  he  is  not  an  American  who  is  one  out- 
wardly, after  the  flesh  or  according  to  nativity  merely. 
America  is  the  New  f  World  of  Opportunity  for  all  that  is  best 
in  Humanity.  Americanism  is  a  spirit  and  a  sentiment,  not 


J.    G.    SCHURMAN.  253 

a  badge  of  locality  or  a  form  of  government.  Americanism 
is  faith  in  the  people,  a  sense  of  brotherhood,  the  rule  of 
perfect  justice,  loyalty  to  reason  and  conscience,  consecra- 
tion to  all  the  high  ends  of  civilization,  and  a  strenuous  indi- 
vidual endeavor  to  build  the  Republic  after  the  model  of  that 
city  of  God  which  sages  and  prophets  have  seen  in  beatific 
vision.  If  these  things  be  in  us  and  abound,  we  are  Ameri- 
cans; the  man  who  lacks  them  is  a  foreigner  and  a  stranger 
to  the  commonwealth,  though  he  should  boast  of  birth  on 
Plymouth  Rock  or  of  baptism  in  the  Mississippi  River. 


COflPETITlON. 


J.  G.   SCHURMAN. 
(Selected  from  an  after-dinner,  speech.) 

There  is  a  growing  number  of  respectable  persons  with 
benevolent  impulses,  who  see  in  the  individualistic  structure 
of  modern  society  and  in  that  competition  which  is  its  corre- 
late, the  root  of  all  evil,  the  terrible  poison  of  that  righteous- 
ness which  alone  exalteth  a  nation. 

This  is  a  very  striking  and  suggestive  phenomenon.  Some 
of  the  best  people  in  the  world  agreeing  with  the  worst  in 
repudiating  a  principle  to  which  more  than  to  any  other  we 
owe  our  modern  civilization!  If  Darwinism  be  true,  the  very 
existence  of  our  species  is  due  to  competition.  In  the  strug- 
gle for  life,  man  emerged  and  he  survived  because  he  was 
the  fittest  to  survive,  but  competition  has  ever  since  kept 
human  life  from  fouling  by  stagnation.  Through  the  rivalry 
of  nations,  the  moral  government  of  the  world  is  effected; 
the  brave,  the  active,  the  intelligent,  the  virtuous  nations  are 
the  scourge  of  God  to  sweep  away  the  lazy,  the  vicious  and 
the  ignorant  nations. 

Arts,  literature,  science,  philosophy,  politics,  inventions, 
necessities,  refinements;  all  are  the  products  of  minds  stirred 
and  quickened  by  the  impulse  of  rivalry.  The  Homeric  epic 
is  our  oldest  poetry,  but  it  is  a  collection  of  songs  which  were 
chanted  by  troubadors  in  contest.  The  Greek  drama  is  the 


254  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

model  of  the  world,  and  save  for  Shakespeare  it  has  never 
been  equaled.  But  the  Greek  dramatists  wrote  their  plays 
for  prizes  which  were  adjudged  by  popular  vote.  The  Greeks 
are  our  ideal  of  progress,  liberal  culture  and  refinement;  and 
I  know  no  foreign  nation  whose  minds  were  so  keenly  sen- 
sitive to  motives  of  rivalry.  In  the  modern  world,  America 
presents  the  most  conspicuous  field  for  the  illustration  of 
competition.  Columbus  goes  ahead  of  all  the  others  in  dis- 
covering it.  The  English  outdid  the  French  in  gaining  pos- 
session of  it,  and  the  Americans  finally  conquered  independ- 
ence from  the  English.  And  what  prolific  and  multifarious 
competition  has  since  obtained  in  population,  in  politics,  in 
industry,  in  letters,  and  in  all  the  instrumentalities  of  trade, 
commerce  and  transportation!  Without  competition  the  new 
world  would  be  no  America,  for,  as  Emerson  says,  "America 
is  only  another  name  for  opportunity."  Here  there  is  oppor- 
tunity for  subsistence,  comfort,  wealth,  education,  high  posi- 
tion, character,  attainment,  and  in  a  word,  manhood,  oppor- 
tunity open  to  every  child  of  our  people. 

All  reform  is  gradual,  piece  by  piece.  We  cannot  risk  the 
experiment  of  turning  society  upside  down  and  standing  it  on 
its  head  to  see  how  it  looks.  Of  course,  there  are  inequali- 
ties in  the  world;  there  always  have  been;  there  al- 
ways will  be;  but  there  are  fewer  to-day  than  ever  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  society,  and  fewer  here  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  globe.  I  do  not  say  this  to  lay  a  flattering 
unction  to  your  souls.  I  say  it  for  your  encouragement,  for 
there  is  much  still  to  do.  Let  us  plod  along  on  the  old  path, 
aiding  by  a  stroke  here  and  a  push  there  to  bring  in  the 
reign  of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity.  Let  us  not  be  led 
astray  by  will-o'-the-wisps,  by  social  panaceas  of  any  sort. 
Let  us  note  clearly  what  can  be  done,  and  what  under  these 
terrestrial  conditions,  with  such  a  human  nature  as  we  are 
endowed  with,  is  altogether  impossible.  Remember  the  Chi- 
cago lady,  who,  presumably  better  informed  about  boys  than 
she  seemed  to  be  about  sheep,  gave  an  order  to  her  butcher 
to  send  a  fore  quarter  of  lamb,  and  be  sure  to  leave  on  the 
tail. 

Man  is  what  he  is.  But  he  is  improvable.  Self-love  and 
sociability  are  the  dominant  impulses  of  his  nature.  Compe- 
tition is  good,  not  evil.  Instead  of  suppressing  it  I  demand 


J.    G.    SCHURMAN.  255 

that  men  shall  compete  with  one  another  in  deeds  of  kind- 
ness and  beneficence  as  they  now  do  in  transactions  that  lead 
to  gain,  or  profit,  or  fame.  The  need  of  the  world  is  more 
competition,  not  less;  competition  in  self-sacrificing  generos- 
ity as  well  as  in  self-asserting  acquisitiveness.  Why  not 
rivalry  in  living  for  others  as  well  as  in  living  for  ourselves? 
Let  selfishness  prevail,  let  men  live  simply  to  acquire,  and  no 
socialist  is  needed  to  pronounce  the  doom  of  human  society. 
But  the  cure  is  not  governmental  socialism  but  the  fresh  in- 
dividualism transfused  and  glorified  by  the  social  spirit,  the 
spirit  of  kindness,  of  helpfulness,  and  of  merciful  justice.  The 
salvation  of  the  race  lies  not  in  constrained  virtue,  but  in 
free  individual  effort,  and  the  unbought  peace  of  brotherly 
love. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  BATTLE  FLAGS. 


CARL,     SCHURZ. 

From  Europe  Mr.  Sumnel-  returned  late  in  the  fall  of  1872, 
much  strengthened  but  far  from  being  well.  At  the  opening 
of  the  session  of  Congress,  he  reintroduced  a  resolution,  pro- 
viding that  the  names  of  battles  won  over  fellow  citizens  in 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion  should  be  removed  from  the  regi- 
mental colors  and  from  the  Army  Register. 

The  resolution  brought  forth  a  new  storm  against  him.  It 
was  denounced  as  an  insult  to  the  heroic  soldiers,  and  a 
degradation  of  their  victories  and  well  earned  laurels. 

Charles  Sumner  insult  the  soldiers  who  had  spilled  their 
blood  in  a  war  for  human  rights?  Charles  Sumner  degrade 
victories  and  depreciate  laurels  won  for  the  cause  of  universal 
freedom?  How  strange  an  imputation!  Let  us  give  the  dead 
man  a  hearing.  This  was  his  thought:  no  civilized  nation 
from  the  republics  of  antiquity  down  to  our  days,  ever 
thought  it  wise  or  patriotic  to  preserve  in  conspicuous  places 
or  in  durable  form  the  mementoes  of  victories  won  over 
fellow  citizens  in  civil  war.  Why  not?  Because  every 
citizen  should  feel  himself,  with  all  others,  as  the  child 
of  a  common  country  and  not  as  a  defeated  foe. 
All  civilized  governments  of  our  day  have  instinctively  fol- 
lowed this  dictate  of  wisdom  and  patriotism.  The  Irishman, 


256  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

when  fighting  for  Old  England  at  Waterloo  was  not  to  behold 
on  the  red  cross  floating  over  him  the  name  of  the  Boyne. 
Should  the  son  of  South  Carolina  when  at  some  future  day 
defending  the  Republic  against  a  foreign  foe,  be  reminded 
by  an  inscription  on  the  colors  floating  over  him  that  under 
this  flag  the  gun  was  fired  which  killed  his  father  at  Gettys- 
burg? Should  this  great  and  enlightened  nation,  proud  of 
standing  in  the  front  of  human  progress  be  less  wise  than 
the  nations  of  2,000  years  ago  and  the  governments  of  Europe 
are  to-day? 

Let  the  flags  of  the  brave  volunteers  which  they  brought 
home  from  the  war  with  the  glorious  record  of  their  victo- 
ries, be  preserved  as  a  proud  ornament  of  our  State  houses 
and  armories;  but  let  the  colors  of  the  army  under  which 
the  sons  of  all  the  States  of  the  Union  are  to  meet  and 
mingle  in  common  patriotism,  speak  of  nothing  but  Union, 
which  is  the  mother  of  all,  equally  tender  to  all,  knowing 
nothing  but  equality,  peace  and  love,  among  her  children. 


TRUTH  AND  VICTORY. 


D.    C.    SCOVILLB. 

The  face  of  the  world  is  changing.  When  crazy  old  John 
Coffin  went  down  to  the  Battery  and,  looking  eastward  over 
New  York  Bay,  called  out  "Attention,  Europe!  Nations!  by 
the  right,  wheel!"  he  saw  what  sane  men  see  now.  Nations 
are  discovering  there  is  something  more  terrible  than  armies, 
something  more  reliable  than  battalions  and  bayonets,  some- 
thing wiser  than  Senators,  something  greater  than  royalty, 
something  sweeter  than  liberty.  Through  the  Gospel  of  Peace 
and  through  the  Gospel  of  War  one  name  is  sounding  over  the 
continents.  Truth!  inspires  the  student  of  history;  Truth! 
is  the  watchword  of  science;  Truth!  is  the  victorious  cry  of 
Christianity.  Graven  on  the  intellect  of  the  statesman,  burned 
into  the  brain  of  the  philosopher,  blazoned  upon  the  stand- 
ard borne  in  the  van  of  the  army  of  progress.  Truth!  is  the 
animating  shout  of  the  ages. 

In  these  days  of  political  corruption,  while  one  after  an- 
other of  our  trusted  leaders  falls  before  the  righteous  and 


D.    C.    SCOVILLE.  257 

relentless  indignation  of  public  sentiment,  it  helps  him  who 
despairs  of  the  future  to  remember  that  company  in  whose 
veins  flows  the  young  blood  of  the  nation,  in  whose  eyes 
kindle  the  fires  of  a  pure  faith,  and  from  whose  hearts  radiate 
the  strong  purposes  that  make  nations  and  direct  civilization. 
These  shall  rise  up  where  need  is,  and  go  into  life's  great 
battle  with  unfaltering  heroism;  and  under  their  banner 
shall  gather  the  world's  best  and  bravest  youth. 

In  the  terrible  battle  of  Balaklava  two  British  regiments 
were  calmly  awaiting  the  advance  of  twelve  times  their  num- 
ber of  Russians.  It  was  a  fearful  moment.  The  English  and 
French  generals  and  thousands  of  soldiers  looked  from  the 
heights  above  upon  this  heroic  handful  of  silent,  motionless 
men  who,  with  sublime  courage,  held  the  honor  of  Britain  in 
that  supreme  hour.  The  glittering  lines  of  Russians  came 
confidently  on.  They  halted  in  very  wonderment  at  the 
heroism  of  the  devoted  band  of  English.  Suddenly  the  British 
trumpets  sounded  the  charge,  and  the  Scotch  Greys  dashed 
at  the  foremost  line  of  Russians.  It  yielded  and  broke. 
Again  the  heroic  little  band  gathered  its  thinned  and  broken 
ranks,  and  flung  itself  against  the  second  line.  "God  save  the 
Queen!  they  are  lost!"  cried  a  thousand  of  their  comrades 
from  the  heights.  It  seemed  madness,  it  was  madness;  but  it 
was  madness  which  knows  nothing  but  success.  Ten  minutes 
of  the  agony  of  suspense,  and  then  a  wild,  spontaneous,  tu- 
multuous cheer  burst  from  the  watching  thousands  on  the 
hills,  and  Balaklava  was  won.  There,  on  the  spot  where  vic- 
tory rewarded  valor,  they  lifted  tenderly  up  a  dying  High- 
lander. He  plucked  from  his  breast  a  cross  of  honor,  through 
which  the  fatal  bayonet  had  crashed.  "Take  this  to  mother," 
said  he,  "and  tell  her  I  was  struck  when  we  charged  the  first 
line,  but  I  could  not  die  till  we  had  carried  the  second." 

And  so,  in  the  infinitely  nobler  battle  of  life,  remember,  as 
you  stand  single  and  unsupported  in  the  conflict  of  Truth, 
that  the  hosts  of  Heaven,  whose  cause  is  that  day  intrusted  to 
your  keeping,  are  watching  you  with  infinite  solicitude.  Heed 
not  the  odds  against  you.  Ask  for  no  allies.  Depend  upon 
no  reinforcements.  Against  all  the  world,  against  wrong  gov- 
ernment, against  corrupt  society,  you  alone  are  invincible, 
you  alone  irresistible. 


258  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

TIME  FOR  BIBLE  STUDY. 


JOHN   R.    MOTT. 

(From  a  pamphlet   published  by   the  International   Committee  of 
the  Young  Men's   Christian  Associations.) 

Bible  study  for  personal  spiritual  growth  should  be  at  a 
regular,  daily  and  unhurried  time.  When  is  that?  Have  you 
ever  heard  of  the  Morning  Watch — the  plan  of  spending  the 
first  half  hour  or  first  hour  of  the  day  alone  v/ith  God?  I 
firmly  believe  that  it  is  the  best  time  in  the  day.  The  mind 
is  less  occupied.  The  mind  is,  as  a  rule,  clearer,  and  the  mem- 
ory more  retentive.  But  forget  these  reasons  if  you  choose. 
The  whole  case  may  be  staked  on  this  argument:  it  equips 
a  man  for  the  day's  fight  with  self  and  sin  and  Satan.  He 
does  not  wait  until  noon  before  he  buckles  on  his  armor.  He 
does  not  wait  until  he  has  given  way  to  temper,  or  to  un- 
kind words,  or  to  unworthy  thoughts,  or  to  easily  besetting 
sin,  and  then  'haVe  his  Bible  study.  He  enters  the  day  fore- 
warned and  forearmed.  John  Quincy  Adams,  President  of  the 
United  States,  noted  in  his  journal,  in  connection  with  his 
custom  of  studying  the  Bible  each  morning,  "It  seems  to  me 
the  most  suitable  manner  of  beginning  the  day."  Lord  Cairns, 
one  of  the  busiest  men  in  Great  Britain,  devoted  the  first  hour 
and  a  half  of  every  day  to  Bible  study  and  secret  prayer.  We 
have  all  heard  how  Chinese  Gordon,  while  in  the  Soudan,  had 
a  certain  sign  before  his  tent  each  morning  which  meant  that 
he  must  be  left  alone.  A  friend  recently  saw  his  Bible  in  the 
Queen's  apartments  at  Windsor,  and  told  us  that  the  pages 
of  that  book,  which  was  his  companion  in  the  morning  watch, 
were  so  worn  that  one  could  scarcely  read  the  print.  He 
always  reminds  us  of  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  who  took  care 
to  be  alone  each  morning  to  ponder  some  portion  of  the 
Bible.  When  on  the  heaviest  marches  it  was  determined  to 
start  at  some  earlier  hour  than  that  which  he  had  fixed  for 
his  devotions,  he  arose  quite  in  time  to  hold  undisturbed 
his  communion  with  God.  Ruskin,  in  speaking  to  the  stu- 
dents at  Oxford,  said,  "Read  your"  Bible,  making  it  the  first 
morning  business  of  your  life  to  understand  some  portion 
of  it  clearly,  and  your  daily  business  to  obey  it  in  all  that 


JOHN    R.    MOTT.  259 

you  do  understand."  Francke  spent  the  first  hour  of  every 
day  in  private  devotions.  Wesley,  for  the  last  forty  years 
of  his  life,  rose  every  morning  at  four  o'clock,  and  devoted 
from  one  to  two  hours  to  devotional  Bible  study  and  prayer. 
Rutherford  was  accustomed  to  rise  every  morning  at  three 
o'clock,  and  the  whole  of  the  earlier  hours  of  the  day  were 
spent  by  him  in  prayer  and  meditation  and  study.  Greater 
than  all,  we  have  it  on  the  best  of  evidence  that  Christ  rose 
a  great  while  before  it  was  day  to  hold  communion  with 
God.  What  he  found  necessary  or  even  desirable  can  we 
do  without?  Spirituality  costs.  Shall  we  pay  what  it  costs? 


EULOGY  ON  O'CONNELL. 


WILLIAM  H.    SEWARD. 

There  is  sad  news  from  Genoa.  An  aged  and  weary  pilgrim, 
who  can  travel  no  farther,  passes  beneath  the  gate  of  one 
of  her  ancient  palaces,  saying  with  pious  resignation  as  he 
enters  its  silent  chambers,  "Well,  it  is  God's  will  that  I  shall 
never  see  Rome.  I  am  disappointed,  but  I  am  ready  to  die." 
The  "superb"  though  fading  queen  of  the  Mediterranean  holds 
its  anxious  watch  through  the  long  days  over  that  majestic 
stranger's  wasting  frame.  And  now  death  is  there;  the 
liberator  of  Ireland  has  sunk  to  rest  in  the  cradle  of  Colum- 
bus. Coincidence  beautiful  and  most  sublime:  It  was  the 
very  day  set  apart  by  the  elder  daughter  of  the  Church  for 
prayer  and  sacrifice  throughout  the  world,  for  the  children  of 
the  sacred  isle,  perishing  by  famine  and  pestilence,  in  their 
houses  and  in  their  native  fields.  The  chimes  rung  out  by 
pity  for  his  countrymen  were  O'ConnelFs  fitting  knell.  His 
soul  went  forth  on  clouds  of  incense  that  rose  from  altars  of 
Christian  charity,  and  the  mournful  anthems  which  recited 
the  faith  and  the  virtue  and  the  endurance  of  Ireland  were 
his  becoming  requiem. 

But  has  not  O'Connell  done  more  than  enough  for  fame? 
On  the  lofty  brow  of  Monticello,  under  a  green  old  oak,  is  a 


260  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

block  of  granite,  and  underneath  are  the  ashes  of  Jefferson. 
Read  the  epitaph;  it  is  the  sage's  claim  to  immortality, 
"Author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  of  the 
Statute  for  Religious  Liberty."  Stop  now  and  write  an 
epitaph  for  Daniel  O'Connell:  "He  gave  liberty  of  conscience 
to  Europe,  and  renewed  the  revolutions  of  the  kingdoms  to- 
ward universal  fredom,  which  began  in  America  and  had  been 
arrested  by  the  anarchy  of  France."  Let  the  statesmen  of 
the  age  read  that  epitaph  and  be  humble.  Let  the  kings  and 
aristocracies  of  the  earth  read  it  and  tremble. 

Who  has  ever  accomplished  so  much  for  human  freedom 
with  means  so  feeble?  Who  but  he  has  ever  given  liberty 
to  a  people  by  the  mere  utterance  of  his  voice,  without  an 
army  or  navy  or  revenue,  without  a  sword,  a  spear,  or  even 
a  shield?  Who  but  he  ever  subverted  tyranny  and  saved  the 
lives  of  the  oppressed,  yet  spared  the  oppressor?  Who  but  he 
ever  detached  from  a  venerable  constitution  a  column  of 
aristocracy,  dashed  it  to  the  earth,  yet  left  the  ancient  fabric 
stronger  and  more  beautiful  than  before?  Who  but  he  has 
ever  lifted  up  seven  millions  of  people  from^the  debasement 
of  ages  to  the  dignity  of  freedom,  without  exacting  an  ounce 
of  gold  or  wasting  the  blood  of  one  human  heart?  Whose 
voice  yet  lingers  like  O'Connell's  in  the  ear  of  tyrants, 
making  them  sink  with  fear  of  change,  and  in  the  ear  of  the 
most  degraded  slaves  on  earth,  awaking  hopes  of  freedom? 
Who  before  him  has  brought  the  schismatics  of  two  centuries 
together,  conciliating  them  at  the  altar  of  universal  liberty? 
Who  but  he  ever  brought  Papal  Rome  and  Protestant  America 
to  burn  incense  together? 

It  was  O'Connell's  mission  to  teach  mankind,  that  liberty 
was  not  estranged  from  Christianity,  as  was  proclaimed  by 
revolutionary  France;  that  she  was  not  divorced  from  law 
and  public  order;  that  she  was  not  a  demon,  like  Moloch,  re- 
quiring to  be  propitiated  with  the  blood  of  human  sacrifice; 
that  democracy  is  the  daughter  of  peace,  and,  like  true  re- 
ligion, worketh  by  love. 

Come  forward,  then,  ye  nations  who  are  trembling  between 
the  dangers  of  anarchy  and  the  pressure  of  despotism,  and 
hear  a  voice  that  addresses  the  Liberator  of  Ireland  from  the 
caverns  of  Silence  where  Prophecy  is  born: 


WILLIAM   H.   SEWARD.  261 

"To  thee,  now  sainted  spirit, 
Patriarch  of  a  widespread  family, 
Remotest  lands  and  unborn  times  shall  turn, 
Whether  they  would  restore  or  build;   to.  thee, 
As  one  who  rightly  taught  how  Zeal  should  burn, 
As  one  who  drew  from  out  Faith's  holiest  urn 
The  purest  streams  of  patient  energy." 


JURY  PLEA. 

WILLIAM  H.   SEWARD. 

(.See  an  account  of  the  case  in   "Great  Speeches  by   Great  Law- 
yers," from,  which  this  selection  is  taken.) 

For  William  Freeman  as  a  murderer  I  have  no  commission 
to  speak.  If  he  had  silver  and  gold  accumulated  with  the 
frugality  of  a  Croesus,  and  should  pour  it  all  at  my  feet,  I 
would  not  stand  one  hour  between  him  and  the  avenger. 
But  for  the  innocent,  it  is  my  right,  my  duty  to  speak.  If 
the  sea  of  blood  was  innocently  shed  then  it  is  my  duty  to 
stand  beside  the  prisoner  till  his  steps  lose  their  hold  on  the 
scaffold. 

I  plead  not  for  a  murderer.  I  have  no  inducement,  no 
motive  to  do  so.  I  have  been  cheered  on  other  occasions  by 
manifestations  of  popular  approbation  and  sympathy;  but  I 
speak  now  in  the  hearing  of  a  people  who  have  prejudged 
the  prisoner  and  condemned  me  for  pleading  in  his  behalf. 
He  is  a  convict,  a  pauper,  a  negro,  without  sense  or  emotion. 
My  child,  with  an  affectionate  smile,  disarms  my  careworn 
face  of  its  frown  whenever  I  cross  my  threshold.  The  beggar 
on  the  street  compels  me  to  give,  because  he  says  "God  bless 
you"  as  I  pass.  My  dog  caresses  me  with  fondness  if  I  but 
smile  on  him.  My  horse  recognizes  me  when  I  fill  his  man- 
ger. But  what  reward,  what  gratitude,  what  sympathy  and 
affection  can  I  expect  here?  I  sat  here  two  weeks  during 
the  preliminary  trial.  I  stood  between  the  jury  and  the 
prisoner  nine  hours  and  pleaded  for  the  wretch  that  he  was 
insane,  and  that  he  did  not  even  know  he  was  on  trial. 


262  MODERN   AMERICAN  .SPEAKER. 

And  when  all  was  done,  all,  or  at  least  eleven  of  them, 
thought  that  I  had  been  deceiving  them,  or  was  self-deceived. 
They  read  signs  of  intelligence  in  his  idiotic  smile,  and  saw 
cunning  and  malice  in  his  stolid  insensibility.  They  rendered 
a 'verdict  that  he  was  sane  enough  to  be  tried — a  contemptible, 
compromise  verdict  in  a  capital  case — and  they  looked  on, 
with  what  emotion  God  and  they  only  know,  upon-  his  ar- 
raignment. The  District  Attorney  bade  him  rise,  and,  reading 
to  him  one  indictment,  asked  him  whether  he  wanted  trial, 
and  the  poor  fool  answered,  "No."  "Have  you  counsel?" 
"No."  And  they  went  through  the  same  mockery,  the  pris- 
oner giving  the  same  answer,  until  a  third  indictment  was 
thundered  in  his  ear,  and  he  stood  before  the  court,  silent, 
motionless  and  bewildered. 

Gentlemen,  you  may  think  of  this  action  what  you  will, 
bring  in  any  verdict  you  can,  but  I  assert  before  Heaven 
that,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  the  prisoner 
at  the  bar  does  not  at  this  moment  know  (why  it  is  that 
my  shadow  falls  upon  you  instead  of  his  own.  I  speak  with 
all  sincerity  and  earnestness.  But  I  am  not  the  prisoner's 
lawyer — I  am  the  lawyer, for  society — for  mankind,  shocked 
beyond  the  power  of  expression  by  the  scenes  I  have  wit- 
nessed here  of  trying  a  maniac  as  a  malefactor.  The  circum-* 
stances  under  which  this  trial  closes  are  peculiar.  The  pris- 
oner, though  in  the  greenness  of  youth,  is  withered,  decayed, 
almost  senseless.  He  has  no  father  here.  The  descendant 
of  slaves,  that  father  fell  a  victim  to  the  vices  of  a  superior 
race.  There  is  no  mother  here,  for  her  child  is  polluted 
with  the  blood  of  a  mother  and  an  infant,  and  he  looks  and 
laughs  so  that  she  cannot  bear  to  look  upon  him.  There  is 
no  brother,  no  sister,  no  friend  here.  Popular  rage  against 
the  accused  has  driven  them  hence,  and  scattered  his  children 
and  his  people. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  notice  the  aged  and  venerable  parent 
of  Van  Nest,  and  his  surviving  children,  and  all  around  are 
mourning  and  sympathizing  friends.  I  know  not  at  whose 
instance  they  have  come.  I  dare  not  say  they  ought  not  to 
be  here.  But  this  I  must  say,  that,  though  we  may  send 
this  maniac  to  the  scaffold,  it  will  not  restore  to  life  the  manly 
form  of  Van  Nest,  nor  reanimate  the  exhausted  frame  of 
that  aged  matron,  nor  restore  to  life  and  strength  and 


WILLIAM   H.   SEWARD.  263 

beauty  the  murdered  mother,  nor  call  back  the  infant  boy 
from  the  arms  of  his  Savior.  Such  a  verdict  can  bring  no 
good  to  the  living  and  carry  no  joy  to  the  dead.  If  your 
judgment  should  be  swayed  by  sympathies  so  wrong,  al- 
though so  natural,  you  will  find  the  saddest  hour  of  your  life 
to  be  that  in  which  you  will  look  down  upon  the  grave  of 
your  victim,  and  mourn  with  compunctious  sorrow  that  you 
should  have  done  so  great  an  injustice  to  the  poor  handful  of 
earth  that  will  lie  mouldering  before  you. 


ENERGY. 


ALEXANDER  H.   STEPHENS. 

By  energy  I  mean  application,  attention,  activity,  persever- 
ance, and  untiring  industry  in  that  business  or  pursuit, 
whatever  it  may  be,  which  is  undertaken.  Nothing  great  or 
good  can  ever  be  accomplished  without  labor  and  toil.  Mo- 
tion is  the  law  of  living  nature.  Inaction  is  the  symbol  of 
death,  if  it  is  not  death  itself.  The  hugest  engines,  with 
strength  and  capacity  sufficient  to  drive  the  .mightiest  ships 
across  the  stormy  deep,  are  utterly  useless  without  a  moving 
power. 

Energy  is  the  steam-power,  the  motive  principle  of  intel- 
lectual capacity.  A  small  body  driven  by  a  great  force  will 
produce  a  result  equal  to,  or  even  greater  than,  that  of  a 
much  larger  body  moved  by  a  considerably  less  force.  So 
it  is  with  our  minds.  Hence  it  is  that  we  often  see  men 
cf  comparatively  small  capacity,  by  greater  energy  alone, 
leave — and  justly  leave — their  superiors  in  natural  gifts  far 
behind  them  in  the  race  for  honors,  distinction,  and  prefer- 
ment. 

It  is  this  principle  in  human  nature  which  imparts  that 
quality  which  we  designate  by  the  very  expressive  term, 
"force  of  character,"  which  meets,  defies,  and  bears  down  all 
opposition.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  striking  characteristic 
of  those  great  minds  and  intellects  which  never  fail  to  im- 
press their  names,  ideas,  and  opinions,  indelibly  upon  the 
history  of  the  times  in  which  they  live. 


264  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Men  of  this  class  are  those  pioneers  of  thought  who  some- 
times, even  "in  advance  of  the  age,"  are  known  and  marked 
in  history  as  originators  and  discoverers,  or  those  who  over- 
turn old  orders  and  systems  of  things  and  build  up  new  ones. 
To  this  class  belong  Columbus,  Watt,  Fulton,  Franklin,  and 
Washington.  It  was  to  this  same  class  that  General  Jackson 
belonged;  for  he  not  only  had  a  very  clear  conception  of  his 
purpose,  but  a  will  and  energy  to  execute  it.  And  it  is  in  the 
same  class,  or  among  the  first  order  of  men,  that  Henry 
Clay  will  be  assigned  a  place. 

His  aims  and  objects  were  high,  and  worthy  of  the  great- 
est efforts;  they  were  not  to  secure  the  laurels  won  on  the 
battlefield,  but  those  wreaths  which  adorn  the  brow  of  the 
wise,  the  firm,  the  sagacious,  and  far-seeking  statesman.  In 
his  life  and  character  a  most  striking  example  is  presented 
of  what  energy  and  indomitable  perseverance  can  do,  even 
when  opposed  by  most  adverse  circumstances. 


THE  NICARAGUA  CANAL. 

HON.    WILLIAM   SULZER,    OF    NEW  (YORK. 
(From  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  February  15,  1899.) 

The  building  and  the  ownership  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  by 
the  government  of  the  United  States  is  essential,  from  a  naval 
and  a  military  standpoint,  to  the  integrity  of  our  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  seaboard.  Everyone  knows  this  who  is  familiar 
with  recent  history.  Everyone  knows  also  that  nothing  could 
help  our  commerce  and  our  merchant  marine  so  much  as  a 
canal  across  the  Isthmus  controlled  by  the  government  of  thd 
United  States.  No  one  will  or  can  deny  the  benefits  and  the 
advantages  that  will  accrue  to  us  by  the  construction  and  per- 
fection of  the  canal.  In  time  of  war  the  canal  will  be  an  im- 
perative instrumentality  for  our  coast  defense,  and  for  our 
own  safety  and  protection.  In  time  of  peace  the  canal  will 
be  one  of  the  great  factors  in  the  trade  and  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  Its  benefits  to  us  will  be  simply  incalculable. 
No  one  can  overestimate  the  advantages  to  us  of  owning  and 
controlling  the  canal  across  Nicaragua. 


WILLIAM   SULZER.  265 

Let  me  say  to  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  this 
House  that  there  are  many  who  are  skeptical  regarding  their 
sincerity  in  this  canal  matter.  Some  of  you,  no  doubt,  favor 
its  immediate  construction,  and  some  of  you,  I  believe,  desire 
to  delay  it  as  long  as  possible.  The  facts  will  all  come  out 
ere  long.  If  you  are  throwing  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
it  will  soon  be  known. 

Your  willful  delays  and  your  studied  procrastination  lend 
irresistible  belief  to  the  statement  which  has  been  going 
around  that  you  do  not  want  to  pass  any  Nicaragua  Canal 
bill  during  this  session  of  Congress.  Why,  I  ask?  Is  it  on 
account  of  the  condition  of  your  Treasury?  Or,  is  it,  for- 
sooth, on  account  of  the  railroads? 

The  canal  should  have  been  built  by  the  United  States  long 
ago.  No  other  people  would  have  delayed  and  dallied  as  we 
have.  Everybody  knows  this.  Everything  that  happened  dur- 
ing the  Spanish-American  war  demonstrates  it.  The  trip 
of  the  Oregon  around  Cape  Horn  was  an  object  lesson  for 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  country.  It  proved  con- 
clusively the  imperative  importance  to  us  of  a  canal  across 
Central  America.  The  recent  trip  of  the  Iowa  and  her  com- 
panion ships  is  another  object  lesson  that  has  arrested  the' 
attention  of  the  thoughtful  people  of  our  land,  and  makes 
the  immediate  building  of  this  canal  an  absolute  necessity. 

I  say  to  the  friends  of  the  canal  that  we  must  take  action 
now  or  we  will  lose  the  valuable  rights  which  we  have  at  the 
present  time.  We  must  take  action  now  or  we  may  jeopardize 
the  possibility  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  ever 
constructing  or  ever  owning  the  Nicaragua  Canal. 

We  must  take  action  now,  or  some  other  country,  wiser  and 
more  farseeing  than  we,  realizing  the  immense  possibilities 
and  the  innumerable  benefits  of  a  canal  across  the  isthmus, 
may  step  in  while  we  delay  and  build  and  own  the  canal,  to 
our  great  detriment  and  disadvantage. 

Let  me,  sir,  say  in  conclusion,  that  every  patriot  in  this 
House  who  believes  in  our  army  and  our  navy,  who  believes 
in  our  greatness  and  our  destiny,  who  believes  in  promoting 
the  safety  of  our  seacoast  towns  and  the  integrity  of  our 
seaboards,  who  believes  in  our  commercial  supremacy,  who 
believes  in  our  maritime  growth,  and  who  believes  in  our 
future  progress  and  advancement  should  stand  firm  for  the 


266  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

building  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  and  bend  every  energy  and 
every  effort  to  secure  its  immediate  accomplishment,  even 
though  it  should  necessitate  an  extra  session  of  Congress. 

We  will  be  derelict  in  our  duty  if  we  adjourn  before  we 
take  action  on  this  vital  question,  and  no  apology  will  justify 
our  inaction  and  our  dereliction.  Let  us  sink  partisanship 
and  stand  together  as  patriots. 

Now  is  the  time  to  do  something.  Now  is  the  time  to  act. 
Build  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  I  say,  and  let  us  begin  at  once. 
Build  it  with  the  money  of  the  Republic,  build  it  with  the 
brains  and  the  brawn  of  the  Republic,  so  that  the  Republic 
will  not  only  own  it  and  control  it,  but  it  will  be  our  achieve- 
ment and  our  monument. 


THE  POETRY  OF  WAR. 


FREDERICK  W.   ROBERTSON. 
(From  a  lecture  on  "The  Influence  of  Poetry.") 

Under  the  influence  of  the  imagination,  selfishness  becomes 
honor.  Doubtless  the  law  of  honor  is  only  half  Christian; 
yet  it  does  this:  it  proclaims  the  invisible  truth  above  the 
visible  comfort.  It  consecrates  certain  acts  as  right,  uncal- 
culatingly,  and  independently  of  consequences.  It  does  not 
say,  "It  will  be  better  for  you  in  the  end  if  you  do  honor- 
ably;" it  says,  "You  must  do  honorably,  though  it  be  not 
better  for. you  to  do  it,  but  worse,  and  even  deathful."  It  is 
not  religion;  but  it  is  better  than  the  popular,  merely  pru- 
dential, mercenary  religion  which  says,  "Honesty  is  the  best 
policy;  Godliness  is  gain;  do  right  and  you  will  not  lose  by 
it."  Honor  says,  "Perhaps  you  will  lose  all;  life.  Lose  then, 
like  a  man,  for  there  is  something  higher  than  life." 

Through  poetic  imagination,  war  becomes  chivalric.  Take 
away  honor  and  imagination  and  poetry  from  war,  and  it 
becomes  carnage.  Doubtless.  And  take  away  public  spirit 
and  invisible  principles  from  resistance  to  a  tax,  and  Hamp- 
den  becomes  a  noisy  demagogue.  Take  away  the  grandeur  of 
his  cause,  and  Washington  is  a  rebel,  instead  of  the  purest 
of  patriots.  But  the  truth  is,  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  poetry 


FREDERICK  W.    ROBERTSON.  267 

has  reached  the  truth,  while  science  and  common  sense  have 
missed  it.  It  has  distinguished  war  from  mere  bloodshed. 
It  has  discerned  the  finer  feelings  that  lie  beneath  its  revolt- 
ing features.  Yes,  carnage  is  terrible.  Death,  and  insult  to 
woman,  worse  than  death,  and  human  features  obliterated 
beneath  the  hoof  of  the  war-horse,  and  reeking  hospitals,  and 
ruined  commerce,  and  violated  homes,  they  are  all  awful. 

But  there  is  something  worse  than  death.  Cowardice  is 
worse,  and  the  decay  of  manliness  and  enthusiasm  is  worse. 
And  it  is  worse  than  death — aye,  worse  than  a  hundred  thous- 
and deaths,  when  a  people  have  gravitated  down,  down  into 
the  creed,  that  the  "wealth  of  nations"  consists  not  in  gen- 
erous hearts — "fire  in  each  breast,  and  freedom  on  each 
brow" — in  national  virtues,  in  heroic  endurance,  and  prefer- 
ence of  duty  to  life;  not  in  men;  but  in  silk  and  cotton,  and 
something  they  call  "capital." 

Peace  is  blessed;  peace  arising  out  of  charity,  but  peace 
springing  from  the  calculations  of  selfishness  is  not  blessed. 
If  the  price  to  be  paid  for  peace  is  this,  that  wealth  accumu- 
late and  men  decay,  better  far  that  every  street  in  every 
town  of  our  glorious  country  should  run  blood. 

Yes,  even  through  the  physical  horrors  of  warfare,  poetry 
discerns  the  redeeming  nobleness.  During  Sir  Charles  Na- 
pier's campaign  against  the  robber  tribes  of  Upper  Scinde,  a 
detachment  of  troops  was  marching  along  a  valley,  the  cliffs 
overhanging  which  were  crested  by  the  enemy.  A  sergeant 
with  ten  men  chanced  to  become  separated  from  the  rest  by 
taking  the  wrong  side  of  a  ravine.  The  officer  in  command 
signalled  the  party  to  return.  The  signal  was  mistaken  for 
a  command  to  charge.  The  brave  fellows  answered  with  a 
cheer,  and  charged.  On  they  went,  charging  up  that  fearful 
pass,  eleven  against  seventy.  One  by  one  they  fell,  six  on 
the  spot,  the  remainder  hurled  downwards;  but  not  until  they 
had  slain  nearly  twice  their  own  number. 

There  is  a  custom  among  those  hillsmen,  that  when  a 
great  chieftain  of  their  own  falls  in  battle  his  wrist  is  bound 
with  a  ( thread  either  of  red  or  green,  the  red  denoting  the 
highest  rank.  According  to  custom  they  stripped  the  dead 
and  threw  their  bodies  over  the  precipice.  When  their  com- 
rades came,  they  found  them  stark  and  gashed,  but  around 
both  wrists  of  every  British  hero  was  twined  the  red  thread. 


268  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


MODERN  WAR  IS  UNWORTHY  OF  CIVILIZATION. 

DR.    EMIL    HIRSCH. 

The  nineteenth  century  was  born  while  the  cannons  were 
roaring  and  it  goes  to  its  grave  while  the  same  thunder  is 
pealing.  But  the  war  which  saw  the  opening  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  had  some  excuse.  The  governments  of  Europe 
had  formed  a  coalition  against  the  new  republic  of  France, 
and  the  French  people,  filled  with  the  enthusiasm  of  their 
new  creation,  sprang  to  the  defense  of  their  country  and 
their  cause.  The  war  which  closes  the  nineteenth  has  not 
even  the  slightest  pretense  to  justice.  It  is  rude  and  barbaric. 
It  is  strange  indeed  that  Christian  nations  should  spend 
Christmas  Day  in  peppering  away  at  each  other  with  bullets. 

In  this  respect  all  nations  have  much  to  answer  for.  Our 
school  histories  are^  catalogues  of  battle,  detailing  in  so 
many  figures  how  many  victories  have  been  won,  how  many 
lives  lost.  Go  to  Paris,  to  Versailles.  There  you  will  find 
a  museum  consecrated  to  all  the  glories  of  France.  You 
enter  it  expecting  to  find  the  picture  of  some  great  counselor, 
the  bust  of  some  immortal  painter  or  sculptor,  for  France 
has  been  the  friend  of  arts.  But  what  do  we  see?  One  hun- 
dred butcheries  continued  for  600  years.  This  is  what  France 
calls  her  glories. 

There  are  those  who  argue  that  war  is  necessary  to  make 
men  patriotic.  Bismarck  said:  "No  war  is  necessary  except 
that  where  the  nation  is  put  to  the  necessity  of  waging  it  to 
preserve  national  existence." 

Let  me  apply  this  to  South  Africa.  No  one  can  claim  that 
the  fate  of  the  English  Empire  was  hanging  in  the  balance. 
Never  was  war  begun  so  frivolously  and  I  hope  will  end  so 
disastrously.  What  little  pretext  was  on  the  English  side 
could  have  been  explained  away.  If  the  glitter  of  diamonds 
had  never  been  seen  or  gold  had  never  been  discovered  Eng- 
land would  not  have  found  it  necessary  to  raise  her  standard 
in  South  Africa. 

Modern  war  is  scientific  butchery.  It  is  cold-blooded  butch- 
ery unworthy  the  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Many  lie 
wounded  on  the  field  of  battle,  thirsting  for  assistance  after 
leaving  their  homes  deserted. 


DR.    EMIL   HIRSCH.  269 

While  we  are  applauding  the  sentiments  which  seem  to 
harmonize  with  our  sympathies  let  us  not  forget  to  give 
them  an  effective  turn  and  say  that  love  and  peace  are  better 
than  war.  Let  us  have  all  internal  difficulties  settled  as  are 
those  between  man  and  man.  Let  us  erect  a  tribunal  to 
listen  to  the  complaints  of  nations  and  award  justice  to  whom 
justice  is  due  and  declare  the  nation  that  declines  to  submit 
to  arbitration  an  outlaw. 

The  Boers  are  men  of  peace,  defending  their  homes  and 
fighting  for  human  liberty.  I  appeal  in  their  behalf  not  to 
forget  their  wounded,  but  let  us  contribute  generously  to 
the  noble  Red  Cross  to  enable  them  to  alleviate  the  sufferings 
of  the  wounded.  My  prayer  is  that  the  day  may  soon  dawn 
when  ambulances  may  be  needed  no  longer,  when  the  proph- 
ecy has  come  true,  when  swords  will  be  beaten  into  plow- 
shares and  lances  into  pruning  hooks,  when  nations  shall  not 
lift  up  the  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war 
by  the  intellect  of  man. 


270  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  VICTORIES  OF  PEACE. 


CHARLES     SUMNER. 

The  true  greatness  of  a  nation  cannot  be  in  triumphs  of 
the  intellect  alone.  Literature  and  art  may  widen  the 
sphere  of  its  influence;  they  may  adorn  it;  but  they  are  in 
their  natures  accessories.  The  true  grandeur  of  humanity  is 
in  its  moral  elevation,  sustained,  enlightened  and  decorated 
by  the  intellect  of  man. 

But  war  crushes  with  bloody  heel  all  justice,  all  happiness, 
all  that  is  godlike  in  man.  True,  it  cannot  be  disguised  that 
there  are  passages  in  its  dreary  annals  cheered  by  deeds  of 
generosity  and  sacrifice.  But  the  virtues  which  shed  their 
charm  over  its  horrors  are  all  borrowed  of  Peace;  they  are 
emanations  of  the  spirit  of  love,  which  is  so  strong  in  the 
heart  of  man  that  it  survives  the  rudest  assaults.  The  flowers 
of  gentleness,  of  kindliness,  of  fidelity,  of  humanity,  which 
flourish  in  unregarded  luxuriance  in  the  rich  meadows  of 
Peace,  receive  unwonted  admiration  when  we  discern  them 
in  war — like  violets  shedding  their  perfume  on  the  perilous 
edge  of  the  precipice,  beyond  the  smiling  borders  of  civiliza- 
tion. God  be  praised  for  all  the  examples  of  magnanimous 
virtue  which  he  has  vouchsafed  to  mankind!  God  be  praised 
that  Sidney,  on  the  field  of  battle,  gave  with  dying  hand  the 
cup  of  cold  water  to  the  dying  soldier!  That  single  act  of 
self-forgetful  sacrifice  has  consecrated  the  fiery  field  of 
Lutphen  far,  far  beyond  its  battle;  it  has  consecrated  thy 
name,  gallant  Sidney,  beyond  any  feat  of  thy  sword,  beyond 
any  triumph  of  thy  pen!  But  there  are  hands  outstretched 
elsewhere  than  on  fields  of  blood  for  so  little  as  a  cup  of 
water.  The  world  is  full  of  opportunities  for  deeds  of  kind- 
ness. Let  me  not  be  told,  then,  of  the  virtues  of  war. 

As  the  hunter  traces  the  wild  beast,  when  pursued  to  his 
lair,  by  the  drops  of  blood  on  the  earth,  so  we  follow  man, 
faint,  weary,  staggering  with  wounds,  through  the  Black  For- 
est of  the  past,  which  he  has  reddened  with  his  gore.  Oh,  let 
it  not  be  in  the  future  ages  as  in  those  which  we  now  con- 
template. Let  the  grandeur  of  man  be  discerned  in  the 


CHARLES   SUMNER.  271 

blessings  which  he  has  secured,  in  the  good  he  has  accom- 
plished, in  the  triumphs  of  benevolence  and  justice,  in  the 
establishment  of  perpetual  peace. 


THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE. 


LYMAN     ABBOTT. 

(Extract    from    the    Baccalaureate    Sermon    at    the    University    of 
Texas,  June  17,  1900.) 

Service  is  the  law  of  life.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  inde- 
pendence. For  the  coffee  that  you  drank  this  morning  at 
breakfast  the  berries  were  probably  picked  in  Mexico  or  in 
South  America;  then  they  were  brought  here  by  the  steam- 
ship or  the  railroads,  then  handled  by  the  merchant  and 
then  prepared  for  the  table.  Someone  raised  the  wheat  in 
Minnesota,  someone  else  ground  it  in  Minneapolis,  someone 
else  brought  it  here,  someone  else  cooked  it.  How  many 
men  were  employed  simply  in  getting  for  us  our  breakfast! 
We  are  dependent  not  only  on  the  present,  but  on  all  the 
past.  How  many  broken  hearts,  how  many  disappointed 
ambitions,  how  many  abandoned  hopes  before  the  locomotive 
was  perfected  which  may  take  you  to  your  homes  to-morrow! 
Can  you  go  to  the  grave  and ( pay  the  dead?  Can  you  pay  for 
what  the  past  has  done  for  you?  You  can  only  pass  on  to 
the  future  some  service  in  acknowledgment  of  that  which  the 
past  has  rendered  you. 

There  are  only  four  ways  in  which  a  man  can  get  anything 
in  this  world.  He  can  make  it  by  his  own  industry;  he  can 
receive  it  as  a  gift;  he  can  filch  it  from  somebody  else;  he 
can  contrive  to  take  it  out  of  the  common  stock  which  God 
meant  for  all  his  children.  Now,  of  these  four  ways  there 
is  only  one  way  that  is  honest  and  self-respecting  for  a  man 
with  bodily  vigor  and  intellectual  ability,  and  that  is  to  make 
it  by  his  honest  industry. 

This  law  of  service  is  the  law  of  the  social  organism.  We 
are  not  merely  animals  to  be  clothed  and  fed  and  housed 
like  so  many  horses.  We  are  knitted  together  in  a  social  po- 
litical fabric,  in  counties,  states  and  nations,  and  as  the  fun- 


272  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

damental  law  of  individual  life  is  service,  so  the  fundamental 
law  of  political  life  is  service.  There  are  two  affirmations  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  one  of  which  is  often  quoted 
and  is  not  true;  the  other  of  which  is  less  frequently  quoted, 
and  is  fundamentally,  essentially  and  eternally  true.  The 
first,  that  "government  rests  upon  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned" is  embraced  in  a  parenthesis  in  the  declaration.  It 
grows  out  of  the  Rousseau  philosophy.  He  taught  that  orig- 
inally all  men  were  free  in  a  state  of  nature  and  surrendered 
their  freedom  by  a  social  compact  for  the  sake  of  the  advan- 
tages to  be  derived  from  government.  History  has  long  since 
shown  that  there  never  was  such  a  state  of  nature,  such  a 
primitive  freedom,  such  a  social  compact.  The  philosophy  has 
gone  but  the  phrase  remains.  The  government  of  the  family 
does  not  depend  upon  the  consent  of  the  children,  nor  that 
of  the  school  upon  the  consent  of  the  pupils,  nor  that  of  God 
Almighty  upon  the  consent  of  humanity. 

In  Cuba  seven  hundred  men,  women  and  children  died  each 
week  before  General  Wood  established  an  order  requiring  the 
citizens  to  clean  house.  They  did  not  want  to  do  so,  but 
they  were  compelled,  and  as  a  result  of  the  cleaning  the 
mortality  has  been  reduced  from  seven  hundred  to  fifty  or 
sixty  per  week.  Six  hundred  and  forty  died  every  week  be- 
fore their  time  because  the  citizens  did  not  wish  cleanliness. 
But  it  was  just  to  compel  them  to  do  what  they  did  not  con- 
sent to  do,  and  so  save  the  lives  of  six  hundred  and  forty 
without  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

This  which  is  the  law  for  the  regulation  of  the  nation  in 
its  international  relations  is  the  law  for  its  regulation  within 
itself;  by  it  must  be  determined  all  questions  of  local  admin- 
istration. Mr.  Croker,  upon  the  witness  stand  in  New  York, 
is  asked  the  question,  "Mr.  Croker,  you  are  in  politics  for 
what  you  can  get  out  of  it?"  and  replies,  "Yes,  sir;  all  day, 
and  every  day  in  the  week."  This  is  the  answer  of  a  boss. 
Men  say,  v;e  must  have  leaders  in  politics.  Certainly  we 
must.  But  what  we  must  have,  is  not  a  man  who  is  in 
politics  for  what  he  can  get  out  of  it  all  day  and  every  day 
in  the  week;  he  is  not  a  leader,  he  is  a  boss.  The  leader 
walks  in  front  of  the  procession  and  the  others  follow  volun- 
tarily; the  boss  walks  behind  with  the  whip.  Leadership 
and  bossism  are  absolutely  inconsistent.  Young  men,  I  call 


LYMAN   ABBOTT.  273 

on  you  solemnly  to  swear  before  God  and  your  flag  that,  so 
far  as  you  can  help  it  there  shall  never  be  in  your  country 
a  government  of  the  boss,  by  the  boss  and  for  the  boss,  but 
that  it  shall  be  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people. 

Ah,  young  men,  I  envy  you  standing  there  at  the  threshold 
of  citizenship  in  this  great  nation.  If  you  be  men  and  not 
"dumb  driven  cattle,"  you  have  before  you  an  opportunity 
that  never  has  an  age  given  to  men  in  the  past.  You  will 
be  the  great  men  and  the  strong  men  of  this  commonwealth. 
It  seems  to  me  a  splendid  thing  to  live  in  this  country  of  ours 
in  this  opening  of  the  new  century;  to  enter  into  this  great 
organization  of  industry  and  try  to  make  the  country  more 
prosperous;  to  enter  into  this  great  nation's  life  and  make  it 
purer;  to  enter  into  this  personal  life  and  make  men  wiser, 
better,  purer,  diviner.  It  is  a  splendid  thing  to  be  able  to  live 
this  life  of  service.  And  when  you  are  taken  up  into  the 
high  mountains  and  shown  the  kingdoms  of  wealth  and  the 
spirit  of  evil  ambition  cries  out  to  you,  "Bow  down  to  me 
and  I  will  give  you  all  these,"  remember,  "He  that  would  be 
greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  the  servant  of  all." 


THE  DUTY  OF  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


(See  Acts  XIX: 21-41.) 

T.    DEWITT   TALMADGE. 

Ephesus  was  upside  down.  The  manufacturers  of  silver 
boxes  for  holding  heathen  images  had  collected  their  laborers 
together  to  discuss  the  behavior  of  one  Paul,  who  had  been  in 
public  places  assaulting  image  worship,  and  consequently  very 
much  damaging  their  business.  There  was  great  excitement 
in  the  city.  People  stood  in  knots  along  the  streets,  violently 
gesticulating  and  calling  one  another  hard  names.  Some  of 
the  people  favored  the  policy  of  the  silversmiths;  others  the 
policy  of  Paul.  Finally  they  called  a  convention — "for  con- 
ventions have  been  the  panacea  of  evil  in  all  ages."  When 


274  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

they  assembled  they  all  wanted  the  floor,  and  all  wanted  to 
talk  at  once.  Some  wanted  to  denounce;  some  to  resolve. 
At  last  the  convention  rose  in  a  body,  all  shouting  together, 
till  some  were  red  in  the  face  and  sore  in  the  throat:  "Great 
is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians;  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians!" 
Well,  the  whole  scene  reminds  me  of  the  excitement  we  wit- 
ness at  the  autumnal  elections.  While  the  goddess  Diana  has 
lost  her  worshipers,  our  American  people  want  to  set  up  a 
god  in  place  of  it,  and  call  it  political  party.  While  there 
are  true  men,  Christian  men,  standing  in  both  political  par- 
ties, who  go  into  the  elections  resolved  to  serve  their  city, 
their  state,  their  country,  in  the  best  possible  way,  yet  in 
the  vast  majority  it  is  a  question  between  the  peas  and  thd 
oats.  One  party  cries:  "Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians!" 
and  the  other  party  cries:  "Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians!" 
when,  in  truth,  both  are  crying,  if  they  were  but  honest 
enough  to  admit  it:  "Great  is  my  pocket-book." 

What  is  the  duty  of  Christian  citizenship?  If  the  Norwe- 
gian boasts  of  his  home  of  rocks;  and  the  Siberian  is  happy 
in  his  land  of  perpetual  snow;  and  if  the  Roman  thought  the 
muddy  Tiber  was  the  favored  river  of  Heaven;  and  the  Chi- 
nese pities  everybody  born  out  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom, 
shall  not  we,  in  this  land  of  glorious  liberty,  have  some 
thought  and  love  for  country?  There  is  a  power  higher  than 
the  ballot-box,  the  gubernatorial  chair  or  the  President's 
house.  To  preserve  the  institutions  of  our  country  we  must 
recognize  this  power  in  our  politics.  See  how  men  make 
every  effort  to  clamber  into  higher  positions,  but  are  cast 
down.  God  opposes  them.  Every  man,  every  nation  that 
proved  false  to  Divine  expectation,  down  it  went.  God  said 
to  Bourbon,  "Remodel  France  and  establish  equity."  It 
would  not  do  it.  Down  it  went.  God  said  to  the  house  of 
Stuart:  "Make  the  people  of  England  happy."  It  would  not 
do  it.  Down  it  went.  He  said  to  the  house  of  Hapsburgh: 
"Reform  Austria  and  set  the  prisoners  free."  It  would  not 
do  it.  Down  it  went.  He  says  to  men  now:  "Reform  abuses, 
enlighten  the  people,  make  peace  and  justice  to  reign."  They 
don't  do  it,  and  they  tumble  down.  How  many  wise  men  will 
go  to  the  polls,  high  with  hope,  and  be  sent  back  to  their 
firesides.  God  can  spare  them.  If  He  could  spare  Washington 
before  free  government  was  tested,  Howard  while  tens  of 


T.   D6WITT  TALMADGE.  275 

thousands  of  dungeons  had  been  unvisited,  and  Wilberforce 
before  the  chains  had  dropped  from  millions  of  slaves,  then 
Heaven  can  spare  another  man.  The  man  who,  for  party, 
forsakes  righteousness,  goes  down;  and  the  battalions  of  God 
march  over  him. 


THE  VENEZUELAN  BOUNDARY  DISPUTE. 


SENATOR  JOHN   M.    THURSTON,    OF   NEBRASKA. 
(Selection  from  a  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate,  1895.) 

If  there  were  nothing  at  stake  but  a  distant  strip  of  South 
American  marsh  and  mountain,  I  should  hesitate  long  before 
voting  to  commit  this  government  to  any  interference. 

But,  sir,  the  present  question  rises  high  above  any  Venezue- 
lan dispute.  The  British  Prime  Minister,  the  accredited 
mouthpiece  of  the  strongest  empire  in  Christendom,  has  seen 
fit  to  officially  advise  this  government  that  the  Monroe  doc- 
trine has  no  place  in  the  law  of  nations,  and  is  not  recog- 
nized or  accepted  by  the  powers  of  Europe.  The  challenge  is 
thrown  down.  The  world  is  waiting  to  know  whether  that 
great  declaration  of  American  policy  is  living  or  dead.  The 
people  of  this  country  expect  this  Congress  to  make  answer 
in  their  behalf,  and  they  expect  that  answer  to  breathe  the 
same  spirit  of  American  patriotism  as  did  the  answer  of  Ethan 
Allen  at  Ticonderoga,  as  did  the  answer  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  did  the  liberty  bell 
of  1776.  Mr.  President,  the  British  position,  bluntly,  almost 
insolently  stated  by  Lord  Salisbury,  has  been  reasserted  from 
the  floor  of  the  Senate,  clothed  in  such  splendid  rhetoric  and 
presented  with  such  fervid  eloquence  as  even  to  win  Ameri- 
can applause.  But  I  cannot  believe  that  the  views  of  the 
Senator  from  Colorado  will  commend  themselves  to  the  delib- 
erate judgment  of  the  American  people. 

I  know  how  grave  is  the  situation.  We  are  calling  a 
halt  upon  that  settled  policy  of  aggression  which  has 
characterized  England's  policy  from  the  hour  when 
her  first  adventurous  prow  turned  to  unknown  seas. 
The  history  of  the  English  people  is  an  almost  unbroken 


276  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

series  of  military  achievements.  Great  Britain  has  cleared 
her  pathway  into  every  corner  of  the  globe  with  the  naked 
sword.  She  has  mastered  the  people  of  every  zone.  Her 
navies  are  upon  every  sea,  her  armies  in  every  clime.  But 
this  furnishes  no  reason  why  Americans  should  abandon  any 
settled  policy  which  the  welfare  of  America  or  the  honor 
of  this  Republic  demands. 

I  share  with  the  Senator  from  Colorado  the  heritage  of 
English  blood.  I  glory  in  the  mighty  achievements  of  the 
English  speaking  race;  but  I  have  not  forgotten  that  England, 
as  a  nation,  compelled  my  ancestors  to  cross  the  stormy 
ocean  and  take  up  habitation  upon  the  stern  and  rock-bound 
coast  of  New  England.  I  have  not  forgotten  that  the  persecu- 
tion of  Great  Britain  followed  them  across  the  sea;  nor  that 
my  grandsires  carried  muskets  and  gave  their  American  blood 
that  British  dominion  over  American  colonies  should  be  for- 
ever at  an  end.  I  have  not  forgotten  that  pur  sailors  and 
marines  were  forced  to  drive  England's  navy  from  the  main 
to  make  the  deck  of  an  American  ship  American  soil. 

Our  English  neighbors  seem  to  believe  that  our  purpose 
can  be  weakened  by  threats  against  our  commercial  securities 
and  by  hints  that  the  people  of  the  South  would  gladly  take 
advantage  of  a  declaration  of  war  to  renew  the  old  internal 
contest. 

Sir,  England  has  mistaken  the  temper  of  our  people  in  the 
past;  tell  her,  by  this  resolution,  that  she  mistakes  it  now. 
Tell  her  that  the  fabric  of  our  national  honor  is  not  upon 
the  bargain  counter,  and  that  our  foreign  policy  will  be 
neither  bartered  nor  exchanged;  say  to  her  that  the  grave 
issues  settled  by  brave  men  upon  American  battlefields  can 
never  be  re-opened. 

Sir,  there  is  no  division  of  sentiment  in  the  United  States; 
let  but  a  single  hostile  drum-beat  be  heard  upon  our  coasts 
and  there  will  spring  to  arms,  in  North  and  South,  the 
grandest  army  whose  tramp,  tramp  was  ever  heard  by  mortal 
man,  fired  with  a  deathless  loyalty  to  their  country's  flag, 
and  marching  on  to  the  inspiring  and  mingled  strains  of 
Dixie  and  the  Star  Spangled  Banner. 

Mr.  President,  believing  that  the  honor  of  my  country  is 
involved  and  that  the  hour  calls  for  the  highest  loyalty  and 
patriotism,  I  shall  vote  for  the  resolution.  I  shall  vote  for 


JOHN   M.   THURSTOtf;  277 

it  not  as  an  affront  to  any  other  nation,  but  to  uphold  the 
dignity  of  mv  own.  I  shall  vote  for  it  in  this  time  of  pro- 
found tranquilly,  convinced  that  peace  with  honor  can  be 
preserved.  But,  Sir,  I  would  vote  for  it  just  as  surely  were 
we  already  standing  in  the  awful  shadow  of  declared  war. 
I  would  vote  for  it  were^the  navies  of  all  Europe  thundering 
at  our  harbors;  I  would  vote  for  it  if  the  shells  of  British 
battleships  were  bursting  above  the  dome  of  the  nation's  cap- 
itol.  I  would  vote  for  it  and  maintain  it  at  all  hazards  and 
at  any  cost;  with  the  last  dollar,  with  the  last  man.  Yea, 
though  it  might  presage  the  coming  of  a  mighty  conflict, 
whose  conclusion  should  leave  me  without  a  son,  as  the  last 
great  contest  left  me  without  a  sire. 


CRinE  ITS  OWN  DETECTER. 


DANIEL.     WEBSTER. 

(Extract  from  his  closing  speech  to  the  jury  in  the  White  Murder 

Trial.) 

Gentlemen,  this  is  a  most  extraordinary  case.  In  some  re- 
spects, it  has  hardly  a  precedent  anywhere;  certainly  none  in 
our  New  England  history.  This  bloody  drama  exhibited  no 
suddenly  excited,  ungovernable  rage.  It  was  a  cool,  calculat- 
ing, money-making  murder.  It  was  the  weighing  of  money 
against  life;  the  counting  out  of  so  many  pieces  of  silver 
against  so  many  ounces  of  blood. 

An  aged  man,  without  an  enemy  in  the  world,  in  his  own 
house,  and  in  his  own  bed,  is  made  the  victim  of  a  butcherly 
murder,  for  mere  pay.  Truly,  here  is  a  new  lesson  for  paint- 
ers and  poets.  Whoever  shall  hereafter  draw  the  portrait  of 
murder,  if  he  will  show  it  as  it  has  been  exhibited  in  the 
stabbing  of  Captain  Joseph  White,  let  him  not  give  it  the 
grim  visage  of  Moloch,  the  brow  knitted  by  revenge,  the  face 
black  with  settled  hate,  and  the  bloodshot  eye  emitting  livid 
fires  of  malice.  Let  him  draw,  rather,  a  decorous,  smooth- 
faced, bloodless  demon;  a  picture  in  repose,  rather  than  in 
action;  not  so  much  an  example  of  human  nature  in  its 


278  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

depravity  and  in  its  paroxysms  of  crime,  as  an  infernal  being, 
a  fiend,  in  the  ordinary  display  and  development  of  his 
character. 

The  circumstances  now  clearly  in  evidence  spread  out  the 
whole  scene  before  us.  Deep  sleep  had  fallen  on  the  destined 
victim,  and  on  all  beneath  his  roof.  A  healthful  old  man,  to 
whom  sleep  was  sweet,  the  first  sound  slumbers  of  the  night 
held  him  in  their  soft  but  strong  embrace.  The  assassin  en- 
ters, through  the  window  already  prepared,  into  an  unoccu- 
pied apartment.  With  noiseless  foot  he  paces  the  lonely  hall, 
half  lighted  by  the  moon;  he  winds  up  the  ascent  of  the 
stairs,  and  reaches  the  door  of  the  chamber.  He  enters,  and 
beholds  his  victim  before  him.  The  face  of  the  innocent 
sleeper  is  turned  from  the  murderer,  and  the  beams  of  the 
moon,  resting  on  the  gray  locks  of  his  aged  temple,  show 
him  where  to  strike.  The  fatal  blow  is  given!  and  the  victim 
passes,  without  a  struggle  or  a  motion,  from  the  repose  of 
sleep  to  the  repose  of  death!  The  murderer  retreats,  retraces 
his  steps  to  the  window,  passes  out  through  it  as  he  came  in, 
and  escapes. 

He  has  done  the  deed.     No  eye  has  seen  him,  no  ear  has 

heard  him.    The  secret  is  his  own,  and  it  is  safe! 

********* 

Ah!  Gentlemen,  that  was  a  dreadful  mistake.  Such  a 
secret  can  be  safe  nowhere.  The  whole  creation  of  God  has 
neither  nook  nor  corner  where  the  guilty  can  bestow  it,  and 
say  it  is  safe.  A  thousand  eyes  turn  at  once  to  explore  every 
man,  every  thing,  every  circumstance,  connected  with  the  time 
and  place;  a  thousand  ears  catch  every  whisper;  a  thousand 
excited  minds  intensely  dwell  on  the  scene,  shedding  all  their 
light,  and  ready  to  kindle  the  slightest  circumstance  into  a 
blaze  of  discovery.  Meantime  the  guilty  soul  cannot  keep  its 
own  secret.  It  is  false  to  itself;  or  rather  it  feels  an  irresist- 
ible impulse  of  conscience  to  be  true  to  itself.  It  labors  under 
its  guilty  possession,  and  knows  not  what  to  do  with  it.  The 
human  heart  was  not  made  for  the  residence  of  such  an 
inhabitant.  The  secret  which  the  murderer  possesses  soon 
comes  to  possess  him;  and,  like  the  evil  spirits  of  which  we 
read,  it  overcomes  him,  and  leads  him  whithersoever  it  will. 
Hp  feels  it  beating  at  his  heart,  rising  to  his  throat,  and  de- 
manding disclosure.  He  thinks  the  whole  world  sees  it  in  his 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  279 

face,  reads  it  in  his  eyes,  and  almost  hears  its  workings  in 
the  very  silence  of  his  thoughts.  It  has  become  his  master. 
It  betrays  his  discretion,  it  breaks  down  his  courage,  it  con- 
quers his  prudence.  When  suspicions  from  without  begin  to 
embarrass  him,  and  the  net  of  circumstance  to  entangle  him, 
the  fatal  secret  struggles  with  still  greater  violence  to  burst 
forth.  It  must  be  confessed,  it  will  be  confessed;  there  is  no 
refuge  from  confession  but  suicide,  and  suicide  is  confession. 
********* 

Gentlemen,  your  whole  concern  in  this  case  should  be  to  do 
your  duty,  and  leave  consequences  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
You  will  receive  the  law  from  the  court.  Your  verdict,  it  is 
true,  may  endanger  the  prisoner's  life,  but  then  it  is  to  save 
other  lives.  If  the  prisoner's  guilt  has  been  shown  and  proved 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  you  will  convict  him.  If  such 
reasonable  doubts  of  guilt  still  remain,  you  will  acquit  him. 
You  are  the  judges  of  the  whole  case.  You  owe  a  duty  to  the 
public  as  well  as  to  the  prisoner  at  the  bar.  You  cannot  pre- 
sume to  be  wiser  than  the  law.  Your  duty  is  a  plain,  straight- 
forward one.  Doubtless  we  would  all  judge  him  in  mercy. 
Towards  him,  as  an  individual,  the  law  inculcates  no  hostility; 
but  towards  him,  if  proved  to  be  a  murderer,  the  law,  and 
the  oaths  you  have  taken,  and  public  justice,  demand  that 
you  do  your  duty. 

With  consciences  satisfied  with  the  discharge  of  duty,  no 
consequences  can  harm  you.  There  is  no  evil  that  we  cannot 
either  face  or  fly  from,  but  the  consciousness  of  duty  disre- 
garded. A  sense  of  duty  pursues  us  ever.  It  is  omnipresent, 
like  the  Deity.  If  we  take  to  ourselves  the  wings  of  the 
morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  duty 
performed,  or  duty  violated,  is  still  with  us,  for  our  happi- 
ness or  our  misery.  If  we  say  the  darkness  shall  cover  us, 
in  the  darkness  as  in  the  light  our  obligations  are  yet  with 
us.  We  cannot  escape  their  power,  nor  fly  from  their  pres- 
ence. They  are  with  us  in  this  life,  will  be  with  us  at  its 
close;  and  in  that  scene  of  inconceivable  solemnity,  which  lies 
yet  farther  onward,  we  shall  still  find  ourselves  surrounded 
by  the  consciousness  of  duty,  to  pain  us  wherever  it  has  been 
violated,  and  to  console  us  so  far  as  God  may  have  given  us 
grace  to  perform  it. 


280  MODERN- AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


LIFE  AND  LOVE. 

KATE   DOUGLAS  WIGGIN. 
(From   "Penelope's  English  Experiences.") 

If  thou  wouldst  have  happiness,  choose  neither  fame>  which 
does  not  long  abide,  nor  power,  which  stings  the  hand  that 
wields  it,  nor  gold,  which  glitters  but  never  glorifies;  but 
chose  thou  Love,  and  hold  it  forever  in  thy  heart  of  hearts. 
For  Love  is  the  purest  and  the  mightiest  force  in  the  uni- 
verse, and  once  it  is  thine  all  other  gifts  shall  be  added  unto 
thee. 

Love  that  is  passionate  yet  reverent,  tender  yet  strong, 
selfish  in  desiring  all  yet  generous  in  giving  all — when  this 
is  born  in  the  soul,  the  desert  blossoms  as  a  rose.  Straight- 
way new  hopes  and  wishes,  sweet  longings  and  pure  ambi- 
tions, spring  into  being,  like  green  shoots  that  lift  their  ten- 
der heads  in  sunny  places;  and  if  the  soil  be  kind,  they  grow 
stronger  and  more  beautiful  as  each  glad  day  laughs  in  the 
rosy  skies.  And  by  and  by  singing  birds  come  and  build 
their  nests  in  the  branches;  and  these  are  the  pleasures  of 
life. 

But  the  birds  sing  not  often,  because  of  a  serpent  that 
lurketh  in  the  garden.  And  the  name  of  that  serpent  is 
Satiety.  He  maketh  the  heart  to  grow  weary  of  what  it  once 
danced  and  leaped  to  think  upon,  and  the  ear  to  wax  dull  to 
the  melody  of  sounds  that  once  were  sweet,  and  the  eye 
blind  to  the  beauty  that  once  led  enchantment  captive.  And 
sometimes — we  know  not  why,  but  we  shall  know  hereafter, 
for  life  is  not  completely  happy  since  it  is  not  heaven,  nor 
completely  unhappy  since  it  is  .the  road  to  heaven— some- 
times the  light  of  the  sun  is  withdrawn,  and  that  which  is 
fairest  vanishes  from  the  place  that  was  enriched  by  its 
presence. 

Yet  the  garden  is  never  quite  deserted.  Modest  flowers, 
whose  charms  we  had  not  noted  when  youth  was  bright  and 
the  world  seemed  ours,  now  lift  their  heads  in  sheltered 
places  and  whisper  peace.  The  morning  song  of  the  birds  is 
hushed,  for  day  dawns  less  rosily  in  the  eastern  skies,  but 
at  twilight  still  they  come  and  nestle  in  the  branches  that 


KATE   DOUGLAS  WIGGIN.  281 

Were  sunned  in  the  smile  of  Love  and  watered  with  its  happy 
tears.  And  over  the  grave  of  each  buried  hope  or  joy  stands 
an  angel  with  strong  comforting  hands  and  patient  smile; 
and  the  name  of  the  garden  is  Life,  and  the  angel  is  Memory. 


"CHINESE"  GORDON. 

Adapted. 

If  ever  there  was  a  Christian  soldier  in  the  fullest  and 
freest  acceptation  of  the  term,  General  Charles  Gordon  was 
one.  He  was  a  Christian  soldier  in  this,  that  he  frankly  de- 
clared what  he  believed,  what  his  convictions  were,  what 
motives  controlled  him;  and  for  all  of  these  he  fought,  prayed 
and  died. 

Gordon  was  sent  specially  to  bring  out  of  the  Soudan  the 
Egyptian  garrisons.  It  was  as  a  giant  going  into  the  night  to 
drag  forth  its  specters.  It  was  literally  the  unknown  he  was 
about  to  ride  into;  and  he  had  for  arms  only  a  small  walk- 
ing cane  and  a  well  worn  Bible.  Poor  missionary!  so  trust- 
ful and  yet  so  doomed. 

His  government  abandoned  him  early.  Red  tape  tied  him 
tighter  than  the  bonds  of  Paul  at  the  first  onset.  Not  a 
single  soldier  was  ever  given  him.  He  asked  for  bare  two 
hundred  British  at  Wady-Halfy.  Refused.  For  bare  5,000 
Turks  for  the  whole  territory.  Refused.  For  Nubar  Pasha 
as  assistant.  Refused.  For  a  garrison  at  Berber.  Refused. 
For  money  to  organize  the  natives.  Refused.  A  water-gruel 
diplomat  sent  out  to  Cairo  to  see  what  was  needed,  who 
had  never  seen  Egypt  in  his  life  before,  dealt  with  this  Sam- 
son as  with  a  baby;  and  bade  him  live  on  Nile  water. 

Poor  soul!  He  still  watched  on,  hoped  on,  prayed  on, 
starved  on,  fought  on.  He  saw  garrison  after  garrison  sur- 
render, and  chief  after  chief  fall  away  from  him.  None  of 
his  race  was  by  him  or  about  him.  His  army  was  .made  up 
of  everything  which  would  run,  sell,  desert,  betray,  steal,  rob 
— do  every  detestable  deed  known  to  man — but  it  would  never 
fight.  No  wonder  this  last  despairing  cry  came  from  him 
in  his  pitiful  helplessness — "O,  for  but  one  more  touch  of 
elbows  with  the  men  who  stood  with  me  in  the  Crimea!" 


282  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

There  came  a  day,  however,  when  he  was  not  to  see  the  sun 
set  any  more.  First  the  flour  gave  out,  then  the  meal.  There 
had  been  no  meat  for  months.  Grass  was  gnawed  on  the 
streets  as  the  wild  King  Nebuchadnezzar  gnawed  it  while 
God's  curse  of  madness  abode  upon  his  head. 

Finally  the  water-gruel  diplomat's  bill  of  fare  had  become 
alone  possible:  Eat  Nile  water.  All  day  one  day  they  ate  it; 
and  that  night,  six  of  Gordon's  pashas  opened  six  gates  to 
the  enemy.  He  was  never  seen  again  after  these  gates  of  his 
defense  were  sold. 

No  more  precious  and  peerless  valor  has  any  man  shown 
through  all  the  ages.  He  went,  beautiful  in  the  warrior  joy 
of  free  and  accepted  death,  and  took  from  fate's  outstretched 
hand  the  martyr's  crown — only  such  crown  as  is  fit  for  heroes. 
A  simple,  faithful,  stainless  knight,  death  smote  him  in  the 
harness,  and  he  died  by  the  standard. 


THE  ENGLISH  SPEAKING  RACE. 

Adapted. 

(Extract    from    a    speech    given    at    a   banquet    of    representative 
Englishmen  and  Americans.) 

Sir,  with  all  my  heart,  and  I  am  sure  with  the  hearty 
assent  of  this  great  and  representative  company,  I  respond  to 
the  final  aspiration  of  your  toast — "May  this  great  family,  in 
all  its  branches  ever  work  together  for  the  world's  welfare." 
Certainly,  its  division  and  alienation  would  be  the  world's 
misfortune.  That  England  and  America  have  had  sharp  and 
angry  quarrels  is  undeniable.  Party  spirit  in  this  country 
has  always  stigmatized  with  an  English  name  whatever  it 
opposed.  Every  difference,  every  misunderstanding  with 
England  has  been  ignobly  turned  to  party  account.  But  the 
two  great  branches  of  this  common  race  have  come  of  age, 
and  wherever  they  may  encounter  a  serious  difficulty  which 
must  be  accommodated,  they  have  to  thrust  demagogues 
aside,  to  recall  the  sublime  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,"  and  in 
that  spirit,  and  in  the  spirit  represented  in  this  country  by 


THE~ENGLISH   SPEAKING   RACE.  283 

the  patriots  of  all  parties,  I  make  bold  to  say  that  there  can 
be  no  misunderstanding  which  may  not  be  honorably  ad- 
justed. 

For  to  our  race,  gentlemen,  is  committed  not  only  the 
defence,  but  the  illustration  of  constitutional  liberty.  The 
question  is  not  what  we  did  a  century  ago  or  in « this  century 
with  the  lights  that  shone  around  us,  but  what  is  our  duty 
to-day,  in  the  light  which  is  given  to  us  of  popular  govern- 
ment under  the  republican  form  in  this  country,  and  the 
parliamentary  form  in  England. 


A  SOUTHERN  COURT  SCENE. 


Anonymous. 

A  negro  trial  was  in  progress  in  the  little  village  of  Jef- 
fersonville.  The  defendant's  counsel  had  introduced  no  testi- 
mony. A  man  had  been  stabbed,  had  fallen  dead,  his  hand 
clasped  over  the  wound  and  from  that  hand  a  knife  had 
dropped,  which  the  defendant's  wife  seized  and  concealed. 
The  prisoner  declared  emphatically  that  the  deceased  had 
assaulted  him  knife  in  hand  and  that  he  had  killed  him  in 
self  defense. 

As  he  began  his  story,  a  tall  thick-set  gentleman  entered 
the  room  and  stood  silent.  The  courthouse  was  crowded  to 
the  door,  the  anxious  multitude  catching  every  word  as  it 
fell  from  the  prisoner's  lips.  When  he  had  ceased,  the  new 
comer  pushed  his  way  down  the  crowded  aisle,  entered  the 
rail,  shook  hands  with  the  Court  and  attorneys  and  sat  down. 
In  view  of  the  strong  circumstantial  evidence  the  prisoner's 
story  had  little  effect,  and  this  was  easily  swept  away  by  a 
few  cold  words  from  the  District  Attorney.  The  case  was 
passed  to  the  jury  and  the  Judge  was  preparing  to  deliver 
the  charge,  when  the  old  gentleman  arose. 

"If  your  Honor  please,"  he  said,  "the  prisoner  is  entitled 
to  the  closing  argument,  and  in  the  absence  of  other  coun- 
sel, I  beg  that  you  mark  my  name  for  the  defense." 

"Mr.  Clerk,"  said  the  Court,  "mark  General  Robert  Thomas 
for  the  defense." 

The  silence  was  absolute.  With  eyes  intent  the  jurymen 
sat  motionless.  Only  this  old  man,  grim,  gray,  and  defiant, 


284  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

stood  between  the  negro  yonder  and  the  grave.  The  past 
seemed  to  speak  out  of  the  silence  to  every  man  on  that 
bench. 

Suddenly  his  lips  opened,  and  he  said  with  quick  but  quiet 
energy: 

"The  knife  found  by  the  dead  man's  side  was  his  own.  He 
had  drawn  it  before  he  was  stabbed.  The  prisoner  is  a 
brave  man,  a  strong  man,  and  he  would  not  have  used  a 
weapon  upon  one  unarmed. 

"Why  do  I  say  he  was  brave?  Every  man  on  this  jury 
shouldered  his  musket  during  the  late  war.  Some,  perhaps, 
were  at  Gettysburg.  I  well  remember  that  fight.  The  enemy 
stood  brave  and  determined,  and  met  our  charges  with  a 
grit  and  endurance  that  could  not  be  shaken.  Line  after 
line  melted  away,  until  at  last  came  Pickett's  charge.  When 
that  magnificent  command  went  in,  a  negro  stood  behind  it, 
watching  and  waiting.  You  know  the  result.  Out  of  that 
vortex  of  flame,  that  storm  of  lead  and  iron,  a  handful 
drifted  back.  From  one  to  another  the  negro  ran,  then 
turned  and  followed  in  the  track  of  the  charge.  On — on,  he 
went;  on  through  the  smoke  and  flame  up  to  the  very  cannon 
themselves.  There  he  bent  and  lifted  a  form  from  the 
ground.  Together  they  rose  and  fell,  and  this  three  times 
until  meeting  them  half  way  I  took  the  burden  from  the  hero 
and  bore  it  on  to  safety. 

"That  burden  was  the  senseless  form  of  my  brother  and 
the  man  who  bore  him  out;  who  brought  him  to  me  in  his 
arms  as  a  mother  would  carry  a  sick  child;  that  man,  my 
friends,  sits  here  under  my  hand.  See — if  I  speak  not  the 
truth." 

He  tore  open  the  prisoner's  shirt  and  lay  bare  his  breast. 
A  great  ragged  seam  marked  it  from  right  to  left. 

"Look,"  he  said,  "that  scar  was  won  by  a  slave  in  an  hour 
that  tried  the  souls  of  freemen,  and  put  it  to  its  highest  test 
the  best  manhood  in  the  South.  No  man  who  wins  such 
wounds  can  thrust  a  knife  into  an  unarmed  foe." 

It  may  have  been  contrary  to  the  evidence,  but  the  jury 
without  leaving  their  seats  gave  a  verdict  of  "Not  guilty," 
and  the  Prosecuting  Attorney,  who  bore  a  scar  on  his  own 
cheek,  cheered  as  he  received  it. 


CLARENCE  N.   OUSLEY.  285 


HAN'S  RESPONSIBILITY  TO  THE  HIGHER  LAW. 

CLARENCE    N.    OUSLEY. 

(Extract   from  an  address   to   the  Literary  Societies   of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas,  June  18,  1900.) 

Whatever  our  faith  or  our  creed,  we  must  all  own  the 
allegiance  of  the  created  to  the  Creator.  We  must  recognize 
our  responsibility  to  the  higher  law.  We  understand  the  law 
though  we  may  not  comprehend  the  law-giver,  and  we  can- 
not transgress  the  law  without  becoming  criminals. 

Even  if  we  could  dismiss  the  decalogue  as  the  command- 
ments of  an  antiquated  God  and  the  injunctions  of  the  Naza- 
rene  as  the  mockery  of  a  false  prophet,  there  would  remain 
to  every  man  the  law  of  conscience,  which  is  common  to  the 
savage  and  the  civilized,  and  which  we  cannot  offend  without 
becoming  outlaws. 

Therefore,  whether  we  are  Deists  or  Christians  or  Agnostics, 
we  are  subject  to  the  higher  law,  and  if  we  do  not  obey  it  we 
are  law  breakers.  This  is  as  simple  and  logical  as  the  con- 
sequence of  the  infraction  of  State  law,  and  the  individual 
who  violates  the  higher  law  deserves  punishment  and  execra- 
tion precisely  as  the  individual  who  violates  the  State  law 
deserves  the  penitentiary  and  social  ostracism.  But  it  is 
one  of  the  flagrant  inconsistencies  of  the  social  code  that  we 
turn  our  backs  upon  the  petty  criminal  and  strike  hands  with 
the  social  outlaw.  Pure  women  who  would  flee  from  a 
thief  as  from  contagion  will  take  to  their  hearts  men  who 
know  not  conscience  or  virtue;  and  men  who  would  not  walk 
down  the  street  with  a  prisoner  of  the  police  court  will  make 
boon  companions  of  those  who  abuse  the  license  of  com- 
merce or  the  weakness  of  the  statutes  and  rob  their  fellows 
of  millions. 

More  than  we  need  laws  to  regulate  commerce  we  need 
action  to  educate  conscience;  more  than  we  need  reform  cru- 
sades we  need  uncompromising  standards  of  right  living  on 
guard  at  the  doors  of  our  homes,  and  more  than  we  need 
anything  in  legislation  or  social  economy  we  need  a  universal 
sense  of  responsibility  to  the  higher  law  and  the  God  who 
framed  it. 


286  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

This  is  a  Christian  land,  and  we  owe  respect  if  not  loyalty 
to  Christian  institutions.  They  are  the  safeguards  of  so- 
ciety. Without  them  to-day  the  moral  universe  would  be 
chaos.  We  may  reject  dogma  and  revile  creed;  we  may  ridi- 
cule the  emotionalism  'of  religion  and  smile  at  the  threaten- 
ings  of  theology,  but  we  cannot  deny  the  truth  of  Christian 
living,  we  cannot  forget  the  achievements  of  Christian  en- 
deavor, we  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  saving  grace  of  Christian 
influence. 

Christianity  is  the  most  intelligent  expression  of  the  higher 
law  that  has  yet  been  given  to  the  world.  It  is  the  most 
reasonable  faith  that  the  religious  instinct  of  the  universal 
man  has  found  to  satisfy  its  spiritual  aspiration.  It  is  the 
latest  if  not  the  last  formula  of  the  eternal  verities.  Its 
teachings  are  above  the  philosophic  wisdom  of  all  the  ages. 
Its  phenomena  have  given  man  a  conception  if  not  a  glimpse 
of  the  Almighty  Father.  Its  hopes  foretell  the  spiritual 
destiny  if  not  the  physical  translation  of  the  human  race.  If 
it  is  not  true  altogether,  it  is  so  sublime  a  fiction  that  it  is 
nothing  less  than  inspiration. 

To  this  supreme  and  splendid  principle  of  noble  and  en- 
nobling life  we  owe  personal  and  mutual  responsibility.  To 
the  higher  law  which  it  expresses  we  are  pledged  in  the 
bond  of  good  conscience  and  in  the  discretion  of  the  com- 
mon weal. 

I  charge  you,  as  you  respect  yourselves,  take  heed  of  your 
responsibility  to  your  birth  and  station;  as  you  love  your 
country  look  well  to  your  relation  to  your  fellowman;  as  you 
rank  the  race  higher  than  the  brute,  remember  the  God  who 
made  you  in  his  image  and  gave  you  the  uplift  of  immortal 
hope. 


DAVID   STARR    JORDAN.  287 


THE  NATION'S  NEED  OF  MEN. 

DAVID    STARR    JORDAN. 

(From    a   Commencement   address    at    Stanford   University,    June, 

1893.) 

If  government  by  the  people  is  to  be  successful,  it  is  you 
and  such  as  you  who  must  make  it  so.  The  future  of  the 
Republic  must  lie  in  the  hands  of  young  men  and  women 
of  culture  and  intelligence,  of  self-control  and  self-resource 
capable  of  taking  care  of  themselves  and  helping  others.  If 
it  falls  not  into  such  hands  the  Republic  will  have  no  fu- 
ture. Wisdom  and  strength  must  go  to  the  making  up  of  a 
nation.  There  is  no  virtue  in  democracy  as  such,  nothing 
in  Americanism  as  such,  that  will  save  us  if  we  are  a 
nation  of  weaklings  and  fools,  with  an  aristocracy  of  knaves 
as  our  masters. 

There  are  some  who  think  that  this  is  the  condition  in 
America  to-day.  There  are  some  who  think  that  this  Re- 
public which  has  weathered  so  nobly  the  storms  of  war 
and  peace  will  go  down  on  the  shoals  of  hard  times;  that 
we,  as  a  nation  cannot  live  through  the  nervous  exhaustion 
induced  by  the  financial  sprees  of  ourselves  and  others.  We 
are  told  that  our  civilization  and  government  were  fit  only 
for  the  days  of  cotton  and  corn  prosperity.  We  are  told 
that  our  whole  industrial  system  and  the  civilization  of  which 
it  forms  a  part  must  be  torn  up  by  the  roots  and  cast 
away.  We  are  told  that  the  days  of  self-control  and  self- 
sufficiency  are  over  and  that  this  nation  is  really  typified  by 
lawless  bands  rushing  blindly  hither  and  thither,  clamoring 
for  laws  by  which  men  shall  be  made  rich  whom  all  pre- 
vious laws  of  God  and  man  have  ordained  to  be  poor. 

In  these  times  it  is  well  for  us  to  remember  that  we  come 
of  hardy  stock.  The  Anglo-Saxon  race,  with  all  its  strength 
and  virtues,  was  born  of  hard  times.  It  is  not  easily  kept 
down;  the  victims  of  oppression  must  come  of  some  other 
stock.  We  who  live  in  America  and  constitute  the  heart  of 
this  Republic  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  "him  that  over- 
cometh."  Ours  is  a  lineage  untainted  by  luxury,  uncoddled 


288  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

by  charity,  uncorroded  by  vice,  uncrushed  by  oppression.  If 
it  were  not  so,  we  could  not  be  here  to-day. 

We  are  here  to-day  to  learn  those  maxims  of  government, 
those  laws  of  human  nature,  without  which  all  administra- 
tion must  fail.  The  best  work  of  a  Republic  is  to  save  its 
children.  The  one  great  duty  of  a  free  nation  is  education, 
wise,  thorough,  universal.  Reforms  in  education  are  the 
greatest  of  all  reforms.  The  ideal  education  must  meet  two 
demands:  it  must  be  personal,  fitting  a  man  or  woman  for 
success  in  life;  it  must  be  broad,  giving  a  man  or  woman 
such  an  outlook  on  the  world  as  that  this  success  may  be 
worthy.  It  should  give  a  man  that  reserve  strength  without 
which  no  life  can  be  successful  because  no  life  can  be  free. 
With  this  reserve  a  man  can  face  difficulties  because  the 
victor  in  any  struggle  is  the  one  who  has  the  most  staying 
power. 

A  man  should  have  reserve  of  skill.  If  he  can  do  well 
something  which  needs  doing  his  place  in  the .  world  will 
always  be  ready  for  him.  A  man  must  have  intelligence.  If 
he  knows  enough  to  be  good  company  for  himself  and  others, 
he  is  a  long  way  on  the  road  toward  happiness  and  useful- 
ness. A  man  should  have  reserve  of  character  and  purpose. 
He  should  have  reserve  of  reputation.  Let  others  think  well 
of  us,  it  will  do  us  good  to  think  well  of  ourselves.  No 
man  is  free  who  has  not  his  own  good  opinion. 

When  an  American  has  reserves  like  these  he  has  no 
need  to  ask  for  special  favors.  The  problems  of  government 
are  problems  of  right  and  wrong.  They  can  be  settled  in  just 
one  way.  They  must  be  settled  right.  If  representative 
government  is  ever  to  bring  forward  wisdom  and  patriotism 
it  will  be  because  wisdom  and  patriotism  exist  and  demand 
representation.  There  is  no  virtue  in  the  voice  of  majorities. 
Truth  is  strong  and  error  weak,  and  majorities  of  error  melt 
away  under  the  influence  of  a  few  men  whose  right-acting 
is  based  on  right-thinking.  Right-thinking  has  always  been 
your  privilege;  right-acting  is  now  your  duty,  and  at  no  time 
in  the  history  of  the  world  has  duty  been  more  imperative 
than  now. 


PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  289 

NATIONAL  PERPETUITY. 


PRESIDENT     McKINLEY. 

(Extract  from  a  speech  at  the  banquet  of  The  National  Associa- 
tion of  Manufacturers  of  the  United  States,  January  27,  1898.) 

I  have  no  fear  for  the  future  of  our  beloved  country.  While 
I  discern  in  its  present  condition  the  necessity  that  always 
exists  for  the  faithful  devotion  of  its  citizens,  the  history 
of  its  past  is  assurance  to  me  that  this  will  be  as  it  always 
has  been  through  every  struggle  and  emergency,  still  onward 
and  upward.  It  has  never  suffered  from  any  trial  or  been 
unequal  to  any  test.  Founded  upon  right  principles,  and 
ever  faithful  to  them,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
vicissitudes  which  may  lie  across  our  pathway.  The  nation 
founded  by  the  fathers  upon  principles  of  virtue,  morality, 
education,  freedom  and  human  rights,  molded  by  the  great 
discussions  which  established  its  sovereignty,  tried  in  the 
crucible  of  civil  war,  its  integrity  confirmed  by  the  results 
of  reconstruction,  with  a  Union  stronger  and  mightier  and 
better  than  ever  before,  stands  to-day  not  upon  shifting  sands 
but  upon  immovable  foundations. 

Let  us  resolve  by  our  laws  and  by  our  administration 
of  them  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  to  cement 
the  Union  by  still  closer  bonds,  to  exalt  the  standards 
of  American  civilization,  encourage  the  promotion  of 
thrift,  and  industry  and  economy  and  the  homely  vir- 
tues which  have  ennobled  our  people,  uphold  the  stability 
of  our  currency  and  credit  and  unstained  honor  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  illustrate  the  purity  of  our  national  and  munici- 
pal government;  and  then,  though  the  rain  descends  and  the 
floods  come  and  the  winds  blow,  the  nation  will  stand,  for  it 
is  founded  upon  a  rock. 


290  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

TOAST  TO  THE  AMERICAN  FLAG. 


PRINCE  WALKONSKY. 

(Delivered  at  Russian  banquet  at  Columbian  Exposition  in  June, 

1893.) 

When  we  look  at  the  map  of  the  United  States,  when  we 
see  that  big  piece  of  continent  between  two  oceans,  all 
divided  in  so  many  different  sections,  we  think  it  shows 
us  one  of  the  most  eloquent  pictures  of  division  with  the 
aim  of  Union;  it  gives  a  marvelous  sample  of  development 
of  the  single  unity  for  the  sake  of  a  common  and  general 
whole.  Now,  if  we  reduce  the  unity  to  its  simplest  expres- 
sion, and  if  on  the  other  part  we  extend  the  limits  of  the 
whole  so  far  as  they  can  be  extended  on  this  earth,  we  will 
have  on  the  one  side  individuality,  and  on  the  other  side, 
humanity.  We  of  course  cannot  know  what  may  be  the 
language  spoken  in  Heaven,  but  I  know  that  on  this  earth 
there  are  no  grander  words  than  these  two:  Individuality  and 
Humanity.  They  are  at  the  same  time  both  the  starting 
point  and  the  final  aim  of  all  human  activity.  In  fact,  indi- 
viduals lead  humanity,  but  humanity  is  the  beacon  that 
shines  for  individuals;  no  individual  can  pretend  to  be  men- 
tioned by  posterity  unless  he  has  done  something  at  least 
for  a  portion  of  humanity,  and  on  the  other  side,  no  change 
or  innovation  brought  into  the  state  of  humanity  deserves 
the  name  of  progress,  if  it  does  not  aim  at  the  happiness  of 
the  individual. 

We,  foreign  nations,  we,  too,  may  be  considered  as  indi- 
viduals. All  of  us  before  coming  here  intensified  our  na- 
tional individuality  as  much  as  we  could  in  order  to  be 
worthily  represented  at  the  Fair.  But  we  would  not  have 
come  here,  had  we  not  known  that  there  is  a  higher  and  a 
wider  horizon  beyond  our  private  national  interests.  Patriot- 
ism is  a  grand  meteor  of  a  great  impulsive  power,  but  it  is 
only  the  soil  which  feels  our  simple  activities.  The  uni- 
versal sun  that  shines  above  and  gives  them  the  necessary 
strength  and  vitality  is  Humanity. 

Later  on  the  great  results  of  what  we  see  now  will  come 
gradually  to  light.  The  day  will  come  when  all  nations,  just 


PRINCE   WALKONSKY.  291 

like  the  different  stars  of  the  different  States,  drop  their 
names  and  lose  their  color  so  as  to  form  a  constellation  ou 
the  blue  sky  of  our  national  flag,  so  all  nations  some  day 
will  forget  and  forgive  the  differences  which  keep  them  dis- 
tant from  one  another,  those  unworthy  differences  which 
make  of  one  human  creature  a  stranger  to  another  human 
creature.  The  day  will  come  when  all  nations  will  join  in 
those  blue  heavens  when  the  words  humanity,  indulgence 
and  peace  make  one  eternally  resplendent  constellation. 

I  cannot  resume  my  wishes  in  a  better  and  shorter  way 
than  in  proposing  you  to  drink  to  the  prosperity  and  glory 
of  that  allegorical  sign,  "The  American  Flag." 


TRUE  GREATNESS. 


ROSWELL   D.    HITCHCOCK. 

True  greatness,  first  of  all,  is  a  thing  of  the  heart.  It  is 
all  alive  with  robust  and  generous  sympathies.  It  is  neither 
behind  its  age  nor  too  far  before  it:  it  is  up  with  its  age 
and  ahead  of  it  only  just  so  far  as  to  .be  able  to  lead  the 
march.  It  cannot  slumber,  for  activity  is  a  necessity  of  its 
existence.  It  is  no  reservoir,  but  a  fountain.  Let  us  waste 
no  tears  over  what  the  world  calls  idle  talent  and  idle  learn- 
ing. Real  talent  and  real  learning  are  not  at  all  likely  to 
be  idle:  it  is  their  very  instinct  to  be  active.  The  man  who 
does  nothing  is  nothing:  the  man  who  has  nothing  impor- 
tant to  give  has  nothing  important  to  keep.  The  great  will 
have  words  to  speak  and  a  work  to  do.  He  who  does  the 
greatest  amount  of  good  in  this  world  is  the  greatest  man. 

The  Titans  of  ancient  fable,  who  piled  mountains  together 
and  stormed  the  heavens,  were  not  great,  only  huge.  He  is 
not  great  who  merely  wastes  the  nations:  only  he  is  great 
who  saves  and  serves  them.  In  the  long  run  history  settles 
its  account  with  every  man  by  determining  precisely  what 
good  he  has  accomplished.  If  Napoleon  saved  Prance  from 
anarchy,  and  ploughed  Europe  with  his  cannon  balls,  only 
in  order  to  reap  a  goodly  harvest  of  universal  freedom;  then 
the  world  is  ready  to  shout  that  Napoleon  was  truly  great. 


292  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

This  world  has  many  sins  and  many  miseries.  It  is  not  a 
world  for  the  selfish  greed  of  gain,  nor  the  selfish  pantings  of 
ambition,  nor  the  selfish  struggles  of  power;  but  a  world  for 
self-abandonment,  for  sacrifice,  for  heroic  toil.  He  who 
seeks  only  to  get  a  living  here  is  the  merest  earthworm. 
He  who  sighs  for  place  and  fame  is  the  merest  trifler.  He 
who  builds  a  throne  for  himself  upon  the  necks  of  men  shall 
become  a  hissing  and  a  byword  among  the  nations.  Only 
he  shall  be  loved  of  God  and  honored  of  men  who  is  found 
to  have  accomplished  something  for  human  happiness  and 
human  good. 


THE  NEED  OF  A  UNIFORM  BANKRUPTCY  LAW. 


S.  W.  T.  LANHAM,  OF  TEXAS. 

(From  a  speech  in   the  United  States  House  of   Representatives, 
February  16,  1898.) 

Mr.  Speaker,  how  pitiable  it  is  to  see  a  man  formerly  pros- 
perous in  business  and  comfortable,  industrious  and  con- 
tented, able  to  provide  suitably  for  himself  and  his  depend- 
ents, reduced  to  want  and  idleness  and  deprivation  of  all  he 
once  enjoyed!  How  crushing  it  is,  moreover,  when  he  real- 
izes, as  he  sometimes  does,  that  the  better  and  stronger  and 
more  operative  years  of  his  life  are  past  and  gone;  that  he 
can  not  retrace  the  journey  and  utilize  a  second  time  the 
opportunities  that  once  were  his. 

,  He  appreciates  most  acutely  the  truth  of  the  dismal  phil- 
osophy of  that  Mohammedan  caliph,  Omar,  I  think  it  was, 
who  said,  "Four  things  come  not  back — the  spoken  word,  the 
sped  arrow,  the  past  life,  and  the  neglected  opportunity." 
In  the  retrospect,  his  discomfiture  is  but  intensified  when  he 
perceives  how  and  where  his  troubles  might  have  been  avoid- 
ed, and  recognizes  too  late,  and  after  the  fact,  the  short- 
comings which  have  marked  his  career. 

I  can  imagine  such  a  man,  worried  and  wretched  by  day, 
insomnolent  and  restless  at  night,  racking  his  brain,  straining 
to  its  utmost  tension  every  ingenuity  at  his  command  for 
the  betterment  of  his  condition,  desiring  to  do  right,  willing 


S.   W.    T.   LANHAM.  293 

if  he  could  to  pay  what  he  owes,  having  just  conceptions  of 
all  his  obligations  and  a  full  consciousness  of  all  his  duties, 
and  yet,  turn  as  he  will,  think  as  he  may,  see  as  he  can, 
there  are  no  signs  of  promise,  and  only  ray  less  darkness  and 
"woe,  irrelievable  woe,"  are  all  that  confront  him. 

In  the  morning  he  wishes  it  were  evening,  and  in  the  even- 
ing he  says,  "Would  God  it  were  morning."  Debt,  the  gloomy 
specter,  is  the  last  thing  to  tell  him  "Good  night"  and  the 
first  thing,  in  derision,  to  bid  him  "Good  morning."  His 
pride,  his  self-respect,  his  reputation  among  his  fellows,  his 
duty  to  his  family  that  he  be  not  "worse  than  an  infidel,  and 
deny  not  the  faith,"  are  all  aroused,  challenge  his  painful 
solicitude,  and  banish  his  peace;  fortune  gone,  his  "torch 
wasted  that  it  can  no  longer  burn,"  claims  against  him  that 
he  can  not  satisfy,  debts  which  he  can  never  by  any  possi- 
bility discharge,  with  tribulations  innumerable  and  immeas- 
urable pushing  and  pressing  his  endurance  to  the  uttermost 
limit,  with  all  the  mien  and  manner  of  a  wounded  spirit 
which  can  not  sustain  his  infirmity,  "dragging  at  each  remove 
a  lengthening  chain,"  wrecked  and  stranded,  with  sorrows 
unspeakable — oh,  Mr.  Speaker,  such  a  man  is  entitled  to  the 
ready  and  cordial  commiseration  of  all  humanity,  the  sym- 
pathy of  all  civilization,  the  benediction  of  every  generous 
heart,  and  every  prompt  and  adequate  relief  that  the  law 
can  give  him. 

We  have  provided  in  our  bill  that  every  honest  individual 
debtor  may  claim  and  enjoy  the  privileges  and  benefits  of 
voluntary  bankruptcy.  And  we  have  gone  so  far  as  to  de- 
clare, in  similitude  of  the  laws  of  the  States,  that  if  he  be 
too  poor  to  pay  the  costs  of  the  proceeding,  his  plaint  shall 
not  on  that  account  be  denied,  but  shall  nevertheless  be 
heard.  We  say  to  him  that  if  you  come  into  Court  with 
clean  hands,  and  in  good  faith  submit  to  your  creditors  your 
cessionem  bonorum  for  pro  rata  distribution  among  them, 
you  shall  be  discharged  from  your  debts  and  "go  hence  with- 
out day,"  protected  in  all  your  exemptions  by  the  laws  of 
the  State  of  your  residence. 

I  believe  its  passage  is  dictated  and  commended  by  sound 
public  policy;  that  in  the  case  of  the  creditor  it  will  afford 
every  facility  for  the  protection  and  enforcement  of  his 
rights  that  he  can  reasonably  demand;  that  in  the  case  of 


294  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

the  deserving  debtor  it  will  "raise  the  fallen  and  cheer  the 
faint;"  that  by  its  aid  thousands  of  good  men  will  be  lifted 
from  "the  mire  and  clay"  of  despair,  endowed  with  renascent 
strength,  and  with  "new  songs  in  their  mouths"  and  fresh 
hope  in  their  hearts  will  resume  the  walks  of  business  activ- 
ity, of  profitable  enterprise,  and  of  useful  citizenship. 


"TIME.' 


CHARLES     SUMNER. 

The  value  of  time  has  passed  into  a  proverb — "Time  is 
money."  It  is  so  because  its  employment  brings  money. 
But  it  is  more:  It  is  knowledge.  Still  more,  it  Is  virtue.  Nor 
is  it  creditable  to  the  character  of  the  world  that  the  proverb 
has  taken  this  material  and  mercenary  complexion,  as  it 
money  were  the  highest  good  as  well  as  the  strongest  recom- 
mendation. 

Time  is  more  than  money.  It  brings  what  money  can 
not  purchase.  It  has  in  its  lap  all  the  learning  of  the  past, 
the  spoils  of  antiquity,  the  priceless  treasures  of  knowledge. 
Who  would  barter  these  for  gold  or  silver?  But  knowledge 
is  a  means  only,  and  not  an  end.  It  is  valuable  because  it 
promotes  the  welfare,  the  development,  and  the  progress  of 
man.  And  the  highest  value  of  time  is  not  even  in  knowl- 
edge, but  in  the  opportunity  of  doing  good. 

Time  is  opportunity.  Little  or  much,  it  may  be  the  occa- 
sion of  usefulness.  It  is  the  point  desired  by  the  philosopher 
where  to  place  the  lever  that  shall  move  the  world.  It  is 
the  napkin  in  which  are  wrapped,  not  only  the  talent  of 
silver,  but  the  treasures  of  knowledge  and  the  fruits  of 
virtue.  Saving  time,  we  save  all  these. 

Employing  time  to  the  best  advantage,  we  exercise  a  true 
thrift.  To  each  of  us  the  passing  day  is  of  the  same 
dimensions,  nor  can  any  one,  by  taking  thought,  add  a 
moment  to  its  hours.  But,  though  unable  to  extend  their 
duration,  he  may  fill  them  with  works. 


CHARLES   SUMNER.  295 

It  is  customary  to  say,  "Take  care  of  the  small  sums  and 
the  large  will  take  care  of  themselves."  With  equal  wis- 
dom and  more  necessity  may  it  be  said,  ''Watch  the  minutes, 
and  the  hours  and  days  will  be  safe." 

Time  is  the  measure  of  life  on  earth.  Its  enjoyment  is 
life  itself.  Its  divisions,  its  days,  its  hours,  and  its  minutes, 
are  fractions  of  this  heavenly  gift.  Every  moment  that  flie,s 
over  our  heads  takes  from  the  future  and  gives  to  the  irre- 
vocable past,  shortening  by  so  much  the  measure  of  our  days, 
abridging  by  so  much  the  means  of  usefulness  committed  to 
our  hands. 

In  the  right  employment  of  time  will  be  found  a  sure  means 
of  happiness.  The  laborer,  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
and  the  youth,  toiling  in  the  perplexities  of  business  or 
study,  sighs  for  repose,  and  repines  at  the  law  which  ordains 
the  seeming  hardship  of  his  lot.  He  seeks  happiness  as  the 
end  and  aim  of  life,  but  he  does  not  open  his  mind  to  the 
important  truth  that  occupation  is  indispensable  to  happi- 
ness. He  shuns  work,  but  he  does  not  know  the  precious 
jewel  hidden  beneath  its  rude  attire. 

Others  there  are  who  wander  over  half  the  globe  in  pur- 
suit of  what  is  found  under  the  humblest  roof  of  virtuous 
industry,  in  the  shadow  of  every  tree  planted  by  one's  own 
hand.  The  poet  has  said,  "The  best  and  sweetest  far  are 
toil-created  gains."  But  this  does  not  disclose  the  whole 
truth.  There  is  in  useful  labor  its  own  exceeding  great  re- 
ward, without  regard  to  gain. 

Seek,  then,  occupation;  seek  labor;  seek  to  employ  all  the 
faculties,  whether  in  study  or  conduct,  not  in  words  only, 
but  in  deeds  also,  mindful  that  "words  are  the  daughters  of 
Earth,  but  deeds  are  the  sons  of  Heaven."  So  shall  your 
days  be  filled  with  usefulness, 

"And  when  old  Time  shall  lead  you  to  your  end, 
Goodness   and   you   fill  up   one  monument." 


296  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


"THE  MAN  WITH  HIS  HAT  IN  HIS  HAND/' 

CLARK    HOWELL. 
(From  an  address  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  December  21,  1899.) 

On  the  day  I  received  the  invitation  to  address  this  dis- 
tinguished gathering,  chance  took  me  to  the  federal  mili- 
tary post  in  the  suburbs  of  my  city.  The  Twenty-ninth  Reg- 
iment of  United  States  Volunteers,  then  quartered  there,  and 
recently  landed  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific,  had  that 
day  received  orders  for  their  trip  of  10,000  miles.  The  troops 
were  formed  in  full  regimental  parade  in  the  presence  of 
thousands  of  spectators,  among  whom  were  anxious  and 
weeping  mothers,  loving  sisters  and  sweethearts,  and  a  vast 
multitude  of  others  who  had  gone  to  look,  possibly  for  the 
last  time,  upon  departing  friends.  Of  the  enlisted  men  a 
great  percentage  were  from  my  own  State,  most  of  them  from 
simple  farmhouses  and  the  quiet  and  unpretentious  hearth- 
stones which  abound  in  the  rural  communities  of  Georgia.  A 
few  had  seen  service  in  Cuba,  but  most  of  them  had  volun- 
teered as  raw  recruits  from  the  farm.  There  were  sturdy 
and  rugged  mountaineers  from  the  Blue  Ridge  counties — 
strong,  steady  and  intrepid,  with  the  simplicity  characteristic 
of  the  mountain  fastnesses  from  which  they  came.  There 
were  boys  from  the  wiregrass — plain,  unassuming  and  un- 
affected, their  eyes  lighted  with  the  fire  of  determination  and 
their  hearts  beating  in  unison  with  the  loyalty  of  their 
purpose.  The  men  moved  like  machines.  The  regiment  of 
raw  recruits  had  become  in  a  few  months  a  command  of 
trained  and  disciplined  soldiers.  The  very  air  was  fraught 
with  the  impressive  significance  of  the  scene,  which  had  its 
counterpart  in  many  of  the  States  where  patriots  enlisted 
faster  than  the  muster  roll  was  called.  % 

Leaning  against  a  tree  close  beside  me  was  a  white-haired 
mountaineer  who  looked  with  intent  eyes  and  with  an  ex- 
pression of  the  keenest  sympathy  upon  the  movements  of 
the  men  in  uniform.  His  gaze  was  riveted  on  the  regiment 
and  the  frequent  applause  of  the  visiting  multitude  fell  appar- 
ently unheard  on  his  ears.  The  regiment  had  finished  its 
evolutions;  the  commissioned  officers  had  lined  themselves 


CLARK   HOWELL.  297 

to  make  their  regulation  march  to  the  front  for  their  report 
and  dismissal.  The  bugler  had  sounded  the  signal;  the 
artillery  had  belched  its  adieu  as  the  king  of  day  withdrew 
beyond  the  hills;  the  halyard  had  been  grasped,  and  the  flag 
slowly  fell,  saluting  the  retiring  sun.  As  the  flag  started  its 
descent,  the  scene  was  characterized  by  a  solemnity  that 
seemed  sacred  in  its  intensity.  From  the  regimental  band 
there  floated  upon  the  stillness  of  the  autumn  evening  the 
strains  of  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner."  Instinctively  and  ap- 
parently unconsciously  my  tall  .neighbor  by  the  tree  removed 
his  hat  from  his  head  and  held  it  in  his  hand  in  reverential 
recognition  until  the  flag  had  been  furled  and  the  last  strain 
of  the  national  anthem  had  been  lost  in  the  resonant  tramp 
of  the  troops  as  they  left  the  field. 

What  a  picture  that  was — the  man  with  his'  hat  in  his  hand, 
as  he  stood  uncovered  during  that  impressive  ceremony!  I 
moved  involuntarily  toward  him,  and,  impressed  with  his 
reverential  attitude,  I  asked  him  where  he  was  from.  "I 
am,"  said  he,  "from  Pickens  County;"  and  in  casual  conver- 
sation it  developed  that  this  raw  mountaineer  had  come  to 
Atlanta  to  say  farewell  to  an  only  son  who  stood  in,  line 
before  him,  and  upon  whom  his  tear-bedimmed  eyes  might 
then  be  resting  for  the  last  time.  The  silent  exhibition  of 
patriotism  and  loyalty  I  had  just  witnessed  had  been  prompt- 
ed by  a  soul  as  rugged,  but  as  placid  as  the  great  blue  moun- 
tains which  gave  it  birth,  and  by  an  inspiration  kindled 
from  the  very  bosom  of  nature  itself. 

There  was  the  connecting  link  between  the  hearthstone  and 
the  capitol !  There  was  the  citizen  who,  representing  the  only 
real,  substantial  element  of  the  nation's  reserve  strength — 
"the  citizen  standing  in  the  doorway  of  his  home,  contented 
on  his  threshold"  had  answered  his  country's  call — the  man 
of  whom  Henry  Grady  so  eloquently  said:  "He  shall  save 
the  Republic  when  the  drum  tap  is  futile  and  the  barracks 
are  exhausted."  In  him  was  duty  typified,  and  in  him  slum- 
bered the  germ  of  sacrifice.  There  was  that  in  the  sponta- 
neous action  of  the  man  that  spoke  of  hardships  to  be  en- 
dured and  dangers  to  be  dared  for  country's  sake;  there  was 
that  in  his  reverential  attitude  that  said,  even  though  the 
libation  of  his  heart's  blood  should  be  required  in  far  off 
lands,  his  life  would  be  laid  down  as  lightly  as  his  hat  was 


298  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

lifted  to  his  country's  call.  Denied  by  age  the  privilege  of 
sharing  the  hardships  and  the  dangers  of  the  comrades  of  his 
boy,  no  rule  could  regulate  his  patriotic  ardor,  no  limitation 
could  restrain  the  instincts  of  his  homage. 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  EYE. 

D.   M.   HARRIS,   D.   D. 

The  new  education  differs  from  the  old  almost  as  day 
differs  from  night.  The  old  education  trained  only  the  mind; 
it  gave  but  little  attention  to  the  heart  and  less  to  the  body. 
The  study  of  mathematics  and  the  dead  languages  made  but 
small  demands  upon  man  as  a  physical  being.  The  modern 
education  which  sweeps  every  field  of  knowledge  trains  the 
whole  man.  The  training  of  the  eye  to  a  careful  and  accu- 
rate observation  is  indispensable  to  the  study  of  modern 
science.  In  every  branch  of  the  physical  science,  the  eye 
is  the  sense  organ  chiefly  employed.  In  detecting  resem- 
blances and  differences  and  in  the  classification  of  animals 
and  plants  the  eye  is  almost  the  only  organ  used.  An  un- 
trained eye  unfits  one  to  study  astronomy  or  botany  or 
mineralogy.  The  study  of  colors  and  forms  constitutes  a 
large  part  of  the  study  of  natural  history.  However  strong 
and  keen  the  intellect  it  can  accomplish  but  little  without 
a  penetrating  eye.  The  eye  is  useful  not  only  in  observing, 
but  also  in  revealing  to  the  soul  the  beauties  of  nature. 
When  once  the  eye  is  trained  to  detect  the  most  delicate 
lines  and  shades  of  color  and  intricate  forms,  it  brings  to 
the  mind  never  ceasing  delight.  The  dull  and  listless  eye 
misses  the  glory  and  beauty  of  a  landscape,  misses  the  differ- 
ences in  colors,  sizes  and  shapes  of  objects,  the  myriad  colors 
of  leaves  and  flowers  and  fruits.  The  trained  eye  enables  its 
possessor  to  enjoy  the  beauties  of  tree  and  bush,  mountain 
and  plain,  earth  and  sky.  The  dazzling  beauty  of  the  sun- 
set, the  majesty  of  the  storm  cloud,  and  the  magnificence  of 
the  mountain  are  all  revealed  through  the  eye. 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT.  299 


AMERICANISM. 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT. 

(Extract   from   an    address   delivered   at   the  Jewish   Chautauqua, 
July  23,   1900.) 

There  are  two  or  three  things  that  Americanism  means. 
In  the  first  place  it  means  that  we  shall  give  to  our  fellow- 
man,  to  our  fellow-citizens,  the  same  wide  latitude  as  to  his 
individual  beliefs  that  we  demand  for  ourselves;  that,  so 
long  as  a  man  does  his  work  as  a  man  should,  we  shall  not 
inquire,  we  shall  not  hold  for  or  against  him  in  civic  life,  his 
method  of  paying  homage  to  his  Maker.  That  is  an  impor- 
tant lesson  for  all  of  us  to  learn  everywhere,  but  it  is  doubly 
important  in  our  great  cities,  where  we  have  a  cosmopolitan 
population  of  such  various  origin,  belonging  to  such  different 
creeds,  and  where  the  problem  of  getting  good  government 
depends  in  its  essence  upon  decent  men  standing  together  and 
insisting  that  before  we  take  into  account  the-  ordinary  po- 
litical questions  we  shall  as  a  prerequisite,  have  decency  and 
honesty  in  any  party. 

Now  for  another  side  of  Americanism,  the  side  of  the 
work,  the  strife,  of  the  active  performance  of  duty,  one  side 
of  Americanism,  one  side  of  democracy.  Our  democracy 
means  that  we  have  no  privileged  class,  no  class  that  is  ex- 
empt from  the  duties  or  deprived  of  the  privileges  that  are 
implied  in  the  words  "American  citizenship."  Now  that  prin- 
ciple has  two  sides  to  it,  itself,  for  all  of  us  would  be  likely 
to  dwell  continually  upon  one  side,  that  all  have  equal  rights. 
It  is  more  important  that  we  should  dwell  on  the  other  side; 
that  is,  that  we  will  have  our  duties  and  that  the  "rights  can 
not  be  kept  unless  the  duties  are  performed. 

The  law  of  American  life — of  course  it  is  the  law  of  life 
everywhere— the  law  of  American  life,  peculiarly,  must  be 
the  law  of  work;  not  the  law  of  idleness;  not  the  law., of  self- 
indulgence  or  pleasure,  merely  the  law  of  work.  That  may 
seem  like  a  trite  saying.  Most  true  sayings  are  trite.  It  is 
a  disgrace  for  any  American  not  to  do  his  duty,  b,ut  it  is  a 
double,  a  triple  disgrace  for  a  man  of  means  or  a  man  of 
education  not  to  do  his  duty.  The  only  work  wdrth  doing 


300  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

is  done  by  those  men,  those  women,  who  learn  not  to  shrink 
from  difficulties,  but  to  face  them  and  overcome  them.  So 
that  Americanism  means  work,  means  effort,  means  the  con- 
stant and  unending  strife  with  our  conditions,  which  is  not 
only  the  law  of  nature  if  the  race  is  to  progress,  but  which 
is  really  the  law  of  the  highest  happiness  for  us  ourselves. 

You  have  got  to  have  the  same  interest  in  public  affairs 
as  in  private  affairs  or  you  can  not  keep  this  country  what 
this  country  should  be.  You  have  got  to  have  more  than  that 
— you  have  got  to  have  courage.  I  don't  care  how  good  a 
man  is,  if  he  is  timid,  his  value  is  limited.  The  timid  will  not 
amount  to  very  much  in  the  world.  I  want  to  see  a  good  man 
ready  to  smite  with  the  sword.  I  want  to  see  him  able  to  hold 
his  own  in  active  life  against  the  force  of  evil.  I  want  to 
see  him  war  effectively  for  righteousness. 

Of  all  the  things  we  don't  want  to  see  is  the  tendency  to 
divide  into  two  camps,  on  the  one  side  all  the  nice,  pleasant, 
refined  people  of  high  instincts,  but  no  capacity  to  do  work, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  men  who  have  not  got  nice  instincts 
at  all,  but  who  are  not  afraid.  When  you  get  that  condi- 
tion, you  are  preparing  immeasurable  disaster  for  the  nation.^ 
You  have  got  to  combine  decency  and  honesty  with  courage. 
But  even  that  is  not  enough,  for  I  don't  care  how  brave,  how 
honest  a  man  is,  if  he  is  a  natural-born  fool  he  can  not  be -a 
success.  He  has  got  to  have  the  saving  grace  of  common 
sense.  He  has  got  to  have  the  right  kind  of  heart,  he  has 
got  to  be  upright  and  decent,  he  has  got  to  be  brave,  and  he 
has  got  to  have  common  sense.  He  has  got  to  have  intelli- 
gence, and  if  he  has  those,  then  he  has  in  him  the  making  of 
a  first-class  American  citizen. 


W.    S.    WITHAM.  301 

A  RIGHTEOUS  WAR. 


W.   S.  WITHAM, 
(Of  Atlanta,  Ga.) 

(From    an   address   before    the   Bankers'    Association,    at   Denver, 
Col.,   October,  1898.) 

This  is  an  educational  war.  It  is  also  a  righteous  war  in 
that  it  obliterates  the  difference  between  brother  and  brother 
arising  out  of  our  Civil  War.  I  come  to  you  from  a  land 
marked  by  many  tombs,  and  whose  long-saddened  memories 
are  once  more  broken  by  the  triumphs  of  her  chivalrous  sons, 
in  proof  of  our  oft-expressed  loyalty  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

It  is  a  war  of  reconciliation.  Shall  the  poor  man  sneer  at 
the  rich,  since  he  has  seen  the  charge  at  El  C,aney,  led  by 
Roosevelt?  Shall  class  hate  class  after  seeing  Hamilton  Fish, 
the  son  of  a  millionaire,  fall  at  the  battle  of  Seville,  caught 
in  the  arms  of  a  penniless  cowboy  from  Texas?  Shall  the 
white  man  feel  contempt  for  the  black  man,  since  he  saw 
that  hero  of  the  colored  troops  rush  ahead  of  our  faltering 
lines,  mount  the  fort  of  San  Juan,  seize  and  break  down  the 
Spanish  flag?  then  fall  lifeless,  pierced  by  no  less  than  thirty- 
two  Mauser  bullets?  Shall  the  Spaniard  hate  his  American 
conqueror,  who,  af-ter  taking  25,000  of  them  prisoners,  filled 
their  empty  stomachs  with  American  food,  gave  them  free 
passage  home  on  safe,  clean  boats,  singing,  as  they  sailed, 
"God  be  with  you  until  me  meet  again?" 

This,  too,  is  a  uniting  war.  Did  you  ever  see  such  a 
Fourth  of  July  as  the  last  one?  The  blowing  up  of  the 
Maine  made  a  grave  for  many  brave  soldiers,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  created  the  cemetery  of  sectionalism.  The 
burning  of  Cervera's  fleet  by  our  own  revealed  more  than 
one  conquered  foe  of  America— for  it  left  in  full  view  of  the 
world  the  ashes  of  sectional  hate.  There  is  no  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  to-day.  Yes,  it  is  a  divine  war,  for  we  find  our- 
selves doubly  freed  in  our  endeavor  to  secure  freedom  to  our 
neighbor. 


302  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

AMERICAN  LIBERTY. 


HAMPTON    L.    CARSON. 

(From  an  oration  delivered  at  the  World's  Fair,  Chicago,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Dedication  of  the  Liberty  Bell,  July  4,  1893.) 

The  institutions  established  by  our  fathers  we  hold  in 
trust  for  all  mankind.  It  was  the  Pilgrim  of  Massachusetts, 
the  Dutchman  of  New  York,  the  Quaker  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
Swede  of  Delaware,  the  Catholic  of  Maryland,  the  Cavalier  of 
Virginia,  and  the  Edict  of  Nantes  man  of  South  Carolina  who 
united  in  building  up  the  interest,  and  in  contributing  to 
the  greatness  and  unexampled  progress  of  this  magnificent 
country.  The  blood  of  England,  of  Holland,  and  of  France, 
wrung  drop  by  drop  by  the  agony  of  three  frightful  persecu- 
tions, was  mingled  by  the  hand  of  Providence  in  the  alembic 
of  America,  to  be  distilled  by  the  fierce  fires  of  the  Revolu- 
tion into  the  most  precious  elixir  of  the  ages.  It  is  the  glory 
of  this  era  that  we  can  stand  here  to-day  and  exclaim  that 
we  are  Americans  in  the  broadest,  the  truest,  and  the  best 
sense  of  that  word;  that  we  recognize  no  throne,  no  union 
of  Church  and  State,  no  domination  of  class  or  creed. 

American  liberty  is  composite  in  its  character,  and  rich  in 
its  materials.  Its  sources,  like  the  fountains  of  our  Father 
of  Waters,  among  the  hills,  are  to  be  sought  in  the  ever- 
lasting truths  of  mankind.  All  ages  and  all  countries  have 
contributed  to  the  result.  The  American  Revolution  forms 
but  a  "single  chapter  in  the  volume  of  human  fate.  From 
the  pure  fountains  of  Greece;  from  the  rude  strength  poured 
by  barbaric  transfusion  into  the  veins  of  dying  Rome;  from 
the  Institutes  of  Gaius  and  the  Pandects  of  Justinian,  from 
the  laws  of  Alfred  and  the  Magna  Charta  of  King  John;  from 
precepts  of  Holy  Writ  and  the  teaching  of  him  who  was  nailed 
to  the  cross  on  Calvary;  from  the  courage  of  a  Genoese  and 
the  liberality  and  fervor  of  a  Spanish  queen;  from  the  blood 
of  martyrs  and  the  visions  of  prophets;  from  the  tongue  of 
Henry,  the  pen  of  Jefferson,  the  sword  of  Washington,  and 
the  sagacity  of  Franklin;  from  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States;  from  the  lips  of  the  living  in  all  lands  and 
in  all  forms  of  speech;  from  the  bright  examples  and  the 


HAMPTON   L.   CARSON.  303 

deathless  memories  of  the  dead — from  all  these  as  from  ten 
thousand  living  streams,  the  lordly  current  upon  which  floats 
our  ship  of  state,  so  richly  freighted  with  the  rights  of  men, 
broadens  as  it  flows  through  the  centuries,  out  into  the 
boundless  ocean  of  the  Future.  Upon  the  shores  of  illimitable 
sea  stands  the  Temple  of  Eternal  Truth;  not  buried  in  the 
earth,  made  hollow  by  the  sepulchers  of  her  witnesses;  but 
rising  in  the  majesty  of  primeval  granite,  the  dome  sup- 
ported by  majestic  pillars  embedded  in  the  graves  of  mar- 
tyrs. 

And  thou,  great  bell!  cast  from  the  chains  of  liberators  and 
the  copper  pennies  of  the  children  of  our  public  schools,  from 
sacred  relics  contributed  by  pious  and  patriotic  hands,  bap- 
tized by  copious  libations  poured  out  upon  the  altar  of  a 
common  country  by  grateful  hearts,  and  consecrated  by  the 
prayers  of  the  American  people,  take  up  the  note  of  prophecy 
and  of  jubilee  rung  out  by  your  older  sister  in  1776,  and  in 
your  journey  round  the  globe  proclaim  from  mountain  top 
and  valley,  across  winding  river  and  expansive  sea,  those 
tones  which  shall  make  thrones  topple  and  despots  tremble  in 
their  sleep,  until  all  peoples  and  all  nationalities,  from  tur- 
baned  Turks  and  Slavic  peasants  to  distant  islanders  and  the 
children  of  the  Sun,  shall  join  in  the  swelling  chorus,  and 
the  darkest  regions  of  the  earth  shall  be  illumed  by  the 
heaven-born  light  of  civil  and  religious  liberty! 


THE  COLLEGE  TYPE  OF  RELIGION. 


CHARLES  F.  THWING, 

(President  of  Western  Reserve  University.) 

(Condensed  from  an  article  in  the   N.   Y.   Independent.) 

The  type   of  religion  prevailing  in  the  college  is   a  very 

human   and  humane   type.     It  respects   the  right?   of  itself 

and  also  of  every  other  individual.     It  concerns  itself  more 

with  wholeness  of  character  and  wholesurneness  of  conduct 

than  with  dogmatic  beliefs,  important  as  these  beliefs   are. 


304  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

It  builds  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  buildings,  with 
reading-rooms,  swimming-tanks,  shower  baths,  game-rooms, 
and  conversation  corners,  as  well  as  with  a  prayer-meeting 
room.  It  embodies  the  type  of  liberal  education  which  Paul 
nobly  outlined  in  these  words,  "Finally,  brethren,  whatso- 
ever things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatso- 
ever things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report;  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these 
things." 

The  college  man  believes  in  God,  and  God  he  loves.  He 
is  not,  however,  inclined  to  talk  or  to  write  about  his  reli- 
gion, as  his  grandfathers  were.  He  is  not  inclined  to  think 
about  his  religion  as  his  predecessors  of  thirty  years  ago 
were  inclined  to  think.  The  reason  of  this  condition  seems 
to  me  to  lie  in  the  lessening  of  the  spiritual  self-conscious- 
ness which  characterizes  the  age.  Men  are  not  given  to  turn- 
ing the  eye  inward.  Men  study  science,  phenomena,  the  ex- 
terior. Men  study  themselves  in  the  psychological  laboratory 
through  acts,  impressions,  endeavors,  and  not  through  a 
passing  self-consciousness  of  themselves.  The  analysis  of 
motives  is  not  common.  The  questioning  and  cross-question- 
ing of  one's  spiritual  and  ethical  self  is  seldom  done.  The 
plummet  line  of  inquiry  is  not  often  cast  into  the  silent 
depths  of  the  soul.  The  lessening  of  spiritual  self-conscious- 
ness which  characterizes  the  age  in  general  characterizes,  of 
course,  the  college  youth  who  is  a  part  of  the  age.  He  does 
not  keep  his  hand  upon  his  spiritual  pulse.  His  hand  he 
uses  in  some  useful  service.  He  does  not  ask  himself,  "Is 
my  soul  saved?"  He  is  doing  something  to  cause  the  salva- 
tion of  the  souls  of  the  other  fellows.  He  does  not  stay  in 
his  room  reading  Baxter's  "Saints'  Rest,"  but  he  is  on  the 
campus  playing  football  and  helping  the  fellows  to  play  an 
honest  and  clean  game  without  swearing. 

I  do  not  think  we  need  fear  that  religion  is  passing  from 
the  college.  The  forms  of  expression  in  matters  religious 
change  in  the  college,  as  well  as  without  the  college.  The 
special  appeal  which  religion  makes  to  humanity  differs  with 
different  conditions,  and  the  accent  which  its  different  truths 
receive  may  worthily  be  more  or  less  strong  in  diverse  con- 
ditions, but  one  can  be  content  with  the  assurance  that  the 


CHARLES   F.    THWING.  305 

college  man  seeks  to  adjust  himself  rightly  to  his  God. 
This  adjustment  is  absolutely  essential  and  central.  This 
adjustment  he  desires  to  make  in  humility,  reverence,  and 
love.  This  adjustment  is  so  personal  that  he  is  loath  to 
write  'or  to  speak  concerning  it;  and  the  absence  of  speech 
concerning  it  is  to  be  interpreted  as  a  sign,  not  of  its  ab- 
sence, but  rather  of  its  preciousness  and  sacredness. 


COLLEGE  REBELLIONS. 


CHARLES   F.    THWING. 
(Extract    from    his    book,    "College    Administration.") 

In  the  history  of  the  government  of  American  colleges  in 
the  last  hundred  years,  what  are  known  as  "college  rebel- 
lions" have  a  somewhat  conspicuous  place.  Although  the 
college  rebellion  has  now  largely  passed  away,  yet  for  a 
century  it  has  in  most  colleges,  at  certain  periods,  played  a 
very  significant  part. 

The  college  student  usually  has  a  pretty  keen  sense  of  what 
we  may  call  "natural  rights."  He  also  has  a  pretty  keen 
sense  of  what  we  may  call  "prescribed  rights."  What  be- 
longs to  him  by  reason  of  his  being  a  human  being,  and 
what  belongs  to  him  by  reason  of  his  standing  in  a  series  of 
college  men  and  a  succession  of  college  classes,  he  is  in- 
clined to  appreciate  at  its  full  value.  Whatever  actions  of 
the  faculty  lessen  his  natural  rights,  or  any  infringement 
upon  what  his  predecessors  were  supposed  to  have  enjoyed  in 
prescription,  he  is  inclined  to  resist. 

It  is  also  to  be  said  that  a  college  faculty  does  not  appre- 
ciate the  natural  or  the  prescribed  rights  of  the  students  at 
the  same  value  that  the  students  appreciate  them.  The 
faculties  are  not  inclined  to  hold  the  honor  of  the  students 
so  high  or  to  feel  so  sensitive  as  the  students  themselves. 
Perhaps,  also,  faculties  cannot  always  be  so  considerate  of 
the  limitations  or  demand,  either  wise  or  unwise,  of  the 
great  body  of  the  students  as  they  ought  to  be. 


306  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

It  is  also  to  be  recognized  that  students  usually  stand  to- 
gether. If  any  one  of  their  number  is  treated  unjustly  by 
the  faculty,  the  whole  body  of  the  students  is  inclined  to 
rally  about  him,  and  to  give  him  aid  and  comfort. 

Out  of  such  conditions  have  grown  college  rebellions.  The 
Bread  and  Butter  Rebellion  at  Yale  in  1828  is  representative 
of  the  difficulties  which  a  college  finds  in  setting  forth  board 
for  its  students.  Students,  like  all  persons  not  living  at  their 
own  homes,  are  inclined  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  food 
spread  before  them;  and,  not  following  the  Scriptural  injunc- 
tion, are  inclined  to  ask  questions  and  even  to  make  affirma- 
tions as  well  as  interrogations. 

In  the  summer  of  1828,  at  Yale  College,  much  complaint 
was  made  of  the  food  provided  by  the  college  steward.  Rep- 
resentations of  dissatisfaction  were  formally  offered  by  rep- 
resentatives of  each  of  the  three  lower  classes;  but  these 
representations  did  not  secure  any  improvement.  At  last  the 
condition  became  so  strained  that  the  whole  body  of  the 
students  agreed  that  they  would  not  continue  at  the  Com- 
mons until  the  changes  they  requested  should  be  made.  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  inform  the  faculty  of  the  de- 
cision. The  committee  called  upon  President  Day,  and  were 
informed  that  no  attention  whatsoever  would  be  paid  to'  their 
complaints  thus  submitted,  as  they  were  in  a  state  of  re- 
bellion; but,  should  they  lay  down  their  arms,  the  matter  of 
the  complaint  would  be  considered.  A  meeting  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  students  followed,  by  which  it  was  declared  in 
their  behalf  that  they  had  repeatedly  made  complaint  of 
their  grievances  to  the  faculty,  and  had  been  promised  re- 
lief, but  these  promises  had  not  been  kept.  They  could  not 
get  relief  with  satisfaction  to  their  dignity  and  self-respect. 
They  therefore  reaffirmed  their  refusal  to  return  to  the  Com- 
mons. 

The  next  day  four  students  who  had  made  themselves 
especially  obnoxious  were  summoned  before  the  faculty 
and  asked  if  they  would  submit  to  the  rules  of  the  college 
and  go  into  the  Commons.  They  declined  and  were  ex- 
pelled. Excitement  had  now  reached  its  climax.  The  four 
men  expelled  became  martyrs.  A  meeting  was  held  in  the 
open  air  on  what  is  now  Hillhouse  Avenue,  at  which  a 
valedictory  oration  was  pronounced  by  one  of  the  four  men 


CHARLES  F.    THWING.  307 

who  had  been  expelled;  and  other  exercises  of  a  somewhat 
touching  and  ridiculous  nature  were  held.  A  procession  was 
formed,  which  moved  to  the  college  green,  and  in  the  dark- 
ness of  night,  falling  on  the  turf  with  hands  joined,  the 
students  sang  a  parting  hymn  to  the  tune  of  "Auld  Lang 
Syne."  The  next  day  the  college  assumed  an  unusual  quiet- 
ness, for  only  a  handful  of  the  students  remained. 

In  this  rebellion,  however,  as  in  most,  division  means  con- 
quest. A  few  days  spent  at  home  with  one's  parents  are 
usually  sufficient  to  dull  the  edge  of  collegiate  patriotism. 
Most  of  the  men  were  soon  ready  to  apply  for  re-admission 
to  the  college.  The  faculty  caused  it  to  be  known  that  the 
four  men  who  had  been  expelled  would  not  be  accepted  on 
any  terms,  but  that  others  might  return  in  case  they  would 
acknowledge  their  fault  and  sign  pledges  that  they  would 
henceforth  obey  college  rules.  Under  these  conditions  nearly 
all  concerned  in  the  rebellion  returned. 


MODERN   AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  HAPPINESS. 


CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER. 
(From   the   Century   Magazine   of  December,   1900.) 

Perhaps  the  most  curious  and  interesting  phrase  ever  put 
into  a  public  document  is  "the  pursuit  of  happiness."  It  is 
declared  to  be  an  inalienable  right.  It  cannot  be  sold.  It 
cannot  be  given  away.  It  is  doubtful  if  it  can  be  left  by 
will.  The  right  of  every  man  to  be  six  feet  high  and  of 
every  woman  to  be  five  feet  four  was  regarded  as  self-evident, 
until  women  asserted  their  undoubted  right  to  be  six  feet 
high  also,  when  some  confusion  was  introduced  into  the 
interpretation  of  this  rhetorical  fragment  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  pursuit  of  happiness!  It  is  not  strange  that  men  call 
it  an  illusion.  But  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  not  the  thing 
Itself,  but  the  pursuit,  that  is  an  illusion.  Instead  of  think- 
ing of  the  pursuit,  why  not  fix  our  thoughts  upon  the  mo- 
ments., the  hours,  perhaps  the  days,  of  this  divine  peace, 
this  merriment  of  body  and  mind,  that  can  be  repeated,  and 
perhaps  indefinitely  extended  by  the  simplest  of  all  means, 
namely,  the  disposition  to  make  the  best  of  whatever  comes 
to  us?  Perhaps  the  Latin  poet  was  right  in  saying  that  no 
man  can  count  himself  happy  while  in  this  life,  that  is,  in  a 
continuous  state  of  happiness;  but  as  there  is  for  the  soul 
no  time  save  the  conscious  moment  called  "now,"  it  Is  quite 
possible  to  make  that  "now"  a  happy  state  of  existence. 
The  point  I  make  is  that  we  should  not  habitually  postpone 
that  season  of  happiness  to  the  future. 

Sometimes  wandering  in  a  primeval  forest,  in  all  the 
witchery  of  the  woods,  besought  by  the  kindliest  solicitations 
of  nature,  wild  flowers  in  the  trail,  the  call  of  the  squirrel, 
the  flutter  of  the  birds,  the  great  world-music  of  the  wind 
in  the  pine-tops,  the  flecks  of  sunlight  on  the  brown  carpet 
and  on  the  rough  bark  of  the  immemorial  trees,  I  find  my- 
self unconsciously  postponing  my  enjoyment  until  I  shall 
reach  a  hoped-for  open  place  of  full  sun  and  boundless  pros- 
pect. 


CHARLES   DUDLEY   WARNER.  309 

The  analogy  cannot  be  pushed,  for  it  is  the  common  expe- 
rience that  these  open  spots  in  life,  where  leisure  and  space 
and  contentment  await  us,  are  usually  grown  up  with  thick- 
ets, fuller  of  obstacles,  to  say  nothing  of  the  labors  and 
duties  and  difficulties,  than  any  part  of  the  weary  path  we 
have  trod. 

The  pitiful  part  of  this  inalienable  right  to  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  is,  however,  that  most  men  interpret  it  to  mean 
the  pursuit  of  wealth,  and  strive  for  that  always,  postponing 
being  happy  until  they  get  a  fortune,  and  if  they  are  lucky 
in  that,  find  in  the  end  that  the  happiness  has  somehow 
eluded  them,  that,  in  short,  they  have  not  cultivated  that 
in  themselves  that  alone  can  bring  happiness.  More  than 
that,  they  have  lost  the  power  of  the  enjoyment  of  the 
essential  pleasures  of  life.  I  think  that  the  woman  in  the 
Scriptures  who  out  of  her  poverty  put  her  mite  into  the 
contribution-box,  got  more  happiness  out  of  that  driblet  of 
generosity  and  self-sacrifice  than  some  men  in  our  day  have 
experienced  in  founding  a  university. 


THE  VALUE    AND   DANGER   OF  PRECEDENTS   IN 
POLITICS. 

ALBERT  J.   BEVERIDGE. 

(From  a  speech  in  the   U.   S.   Senate,   1900,   on   the  Porto   Rican 
Tariff  Bill.) 

Let  me  state,  sir,  what  is  here  involved,  The  govern- 
ment says  that  Congress  shall  provide  such  a  government 
for  these  islands,  conquered  in  our  late  war,  as  shall  be 
best  for  them  and  for  us;  the  opposition  says  we  can  act 
in  only  one  way  toward  them,  and  that  was  the  way  devised 
for  our  infant  states  which  were  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh 
of  our  flesh  when  they  were  territories.  The  government 
says  we  must  teach  and  train  and  guide  these  children  for 
years,  for  decades,  and  in  some  instances  it  may  be  for 
generations,  till  they  comprehend  what  free  speech,  equal 
laws  and  all  the  substance  of  liberty  means,  before  we  give 


310  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

into  their  hands  that  self-government  which  it  required  hun- 
dreds of  years  for  us  to  comprehend  and  hundreds  of  other 
years  for  us  to  learn  how  to  use.  The  opposition  says  we 
must  bestow  self-government  now. 

Sir,  the  present  situation  is  for  us  unprecedented  Our 
action  must  be  without  example  in  our  history.  The  de- 
cisions of  our  Supreme  Court  are  not  to  the  precise  point, 
and  where  analogy  applies  those  decisions  to  the  present 
conditions,  they  are  conflicting  and  confused.  This  is  for- 
tunate rather  than  otherwise.  New  situations  should  be  met 
with  new  methods.  Search  for  precedents  where  none  exist, 
effort  to  apply  opinions  of  judges  to  conditions,  neither  be- 
fore them,  nor  dreamed  of  when  they  wrote  those  decisions, 
is  not  helpful. 

I  admit  and  assert  the  authority  of  precedent.  I  under- 
stand that  the  philosophy  upon  which  it  rests  is  as  deep  as 
civilization  itself.  But  that  very  philosophy  demands  that 
precedents  shall  apply  only  to  like  situations  and  that  the 
solution  of  new  problems  shall  not  be  hampered  by  fitting 
them  into  inapplicable  precedents.  The  very  philosophy  of 
precedents  demands  the  creation  of  new  precedents  out  of 
new  occasions.  Surely  we  can  see  more  clearly  before  us 
with  our  living  eyes  than  our  dead  fathers  with  their  dead 
eyes,  looking,  not  at  our  problems,  but  at  theirs. 

Precedent  has  its  rightful  authority,  but  it  has  its  dangers, 
too.  It  sanctifies  the  past,  but  used  beyond  its  rightful  sphere 
it  forbids  the  future.  China,  we  say,  is  living  in  the  past. 
She  is  living  in  her  precedents.  She  inquires  not  the  best 
way;  she  asks  only  the  way  of  her  fathers.  She  is  remi- 
niscent; not  inventive.  Her  memory  is  abnormal;  her  initia- 
tive is  atrophied.  Drugged  with  the  opium  of  precedent  she 
sits  and  dreams  of  ancient  glories  and  the  ancient  gods.  The 
science  of  the  modern  world  is  the  lie  to  her  because  her 
fathers  knew  it  not.  Our  medicines  are  poison  because  they 
are  not  inherited  from  the  distant  past,  and  enchantment  is 
efficacious  still  because  her  ancestry  dealt  with  the  magic  of 
the  night.  Spirits  of  evil  fly  upon  the  air  and  workmen 
fix  charms  upon  buildings  while  at  work  to  frighten  the  fell 
influences  of  the  nether  world,  because  their  fathers  did  the 
like  for  a  thousand  years. 


ALBERT  J.   BEVERIDGE.  311 

Precedent  has  shod  with  lead  the  feet  of  this  puissant  peo- 
ple and  put  upon  her  eyelids  the  somnolent  spell  of  dreams. 
Happy  for  China  when  we  shall  shake  that  slumber  from 
her  blood  and  her  people,  refreshed  and  inspired  by  energy 
of  progress,  shall  meet  each  new  emergency,  opportunity  and 
duty  by  the  wisdom  of  a  living  mind  and  not  by  the  wisdom 
of  a  brain  which  for  a  thousand  years  has  been  thoughtless 
dust  and  even  when  quick  and  vivid  was  solving  not  the  prob- 
lems of  to-day,  but  those  of  the  entombed  and  storied  centu- 
ries. 


IMMORTALITY. 

GEORGE   PRENTICE. 

Men  seldom  think  of  the  shadow  that  falls  across  their 
own  path,  hiding  forever  from  their  eyes,  the  traces  of  the 
loved  ones,  whose  living  smiles  were  the  sunlight  of  their 
existence.  Death  is  the  great  antagonist  of  life;  and  the 
cold  thought  of  the  tomb  is  the  skeleton  of  all  feasts.  We 
do  not  want  to  go  through  the  dark  valley,  although  its 
passage  may  lead  to  paradise;  and  with  Charles  Lamb  we 
do  not  want  to  lie  down  in  the  muddy  grave,  even  with 
kings  and  princes  for  our  bed  fellows.  But  the  fiat  of  nature 
is  inexorable.  There  is  no  appeal  of  relief  from  the  great 
law  which  dooms  us  to  the  dust. 

We  flourish,  and  we  fade  as  the  leaves  of  the  forest;  and 
the  flower  that  blooms  and  withers  in  a  day  has  not  a  frailer 
hold  upon  life  than  the  mightiest  monarch  that  ever  shook 
the  earth  with  his  footsteps.  Generations  of  men  appear  and 
vanish  as  the  grass;  and  the  countless  multitude  that 
throngs  the  world  to-day  will  to-morrow  disappear  as  the 
footsteps  on  the  shore. 

In  the  beautiful  drama  of  Ion,  the  instinct  of  immortality, 
so  eloquently  uttered  by  the  death  devoted  Greek,  finds  a 
deep  response  in  every  thoughtful  soul,  It  cannot  be  that 
earth  is  man's  only  abiding  place.  It  cannot  be  that  our  life 
is  a  bubble,  cast  up  by  the  ocean  of  eternity,  to  float  another 


312  -      MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

moment  upon  its  surface,  and  then  sink  into  nothingness  and 
darkness  forever.  Else  why  is  it  that  the  high  and  glorious 
aspirations,  which  leap  like  Angels  from  the  temple  of  our 
hearts,  are  forever  wandering  abroad  unsatisfied?  Why  is 
it,  the  rainbow  and  the  cloud  come  over  us  with  a  beauty 
that  is  not  of  earth;  and  then  pass  off  and  leave  us  to  muse 
on  their  faded  loveliness?  Why  is  it  that  the  stars  which 
hold  their  festival  around  the  midnight  throne  are  set  above 
the  grasp  of  our  limited  faculties,  and  are  forever  mocking 
us  with  their  unapproachable  glory? 

Finally,  why  is  it  that  the  bright  forms  are  presented  to 
view,  then  taken  from  us,  leaving  the  thousand  streams  of 
affections  to  flow  back  in  Alpine  torrent  upon  our  hearts? 

We  are  born  for  a  higher  destiny  than  of  earth.  There  is  a 
realm  where  the  rainbow  never  fades;  where  the  stars  will 
be  spread  out  before  us  like  the  islands  that  slumber  on 
the  ocean;  and  where  the  beautiful  beings  that  here  pass 
before  us  like  visions,  will  stay  in  our  presence  forever. 


THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

A  hundred  years  ago,  our  fathers  announced  this  sublime, 
and  as  it  then  seemed,  foolhardy  declaration,  "That  God  in 
His  wisdom  intended  all  men  to  be  free  and  equal;  all  men 
without  restriction,  without  qualification,  without  limit. 

A  hundred  years  have  rolled  away  since  that  venturous 
declaration,  and  to-day  with  a  territory  that  joins  ocean  to 
ocean,  with  forty  millions  of  people,  with  two  wars  behind 
her,  the  great  Republic  launches  into  the  second  century 
of  her  existence.  The  history  of  the  world  has  no  such  chap- 
ter, in  its  breadth,  its  depth,  its  significance,  its  bearing  on 
future  history. 

If,  then,  this  is  the  sober  record,  without  exaggeration,  with 
what  tender  and  loyal  reverence  may  we  not  cherish  and 


WENDELL  PHILLIPSn  313 

guard  from  change  or  desecration  the  spots  where  this 
marvelous  government  began;  the  roof  under  which  its  first 
councils  were  held,  where  the  air  still  trembles  and  burns 
with  the  words  of  James  Otis  and  Samuel  Adams? — The  Old 
South  Church. 

Its  arches  will  speak  to  us  as  long  as  they  stand  of  the 
sublime  and  sturdy  enthusiasm  of  Adams,  of  Otis'  passionate 
eloquence  and  sfngle-hearted  devotion,  of  Warren  in  his 
young  genius  and  enthusiasm,  of  a  plain  unaffected  but  high- 
souled  people  who  ventured  all  for  a  principle. 

Only  a  sentiment!  But  what  does  it  feed  upon?  Let  some- 
one point  out  to  you  the  Old  Church  Tower,  whose  lantern 
told  Paul  Revere  that  Middlesex  was  to  be  invaded;  let 
someone  show  you  the  elm  where  Washington  first  drew  his 
sword;  let  someone  show  you  Winter  Hill,  whose  cannon 
ball  struck  Brattle  Street  Church,  at  your  feet  the  sod  is 
greener  for  the  blood  of  Warren,  which  settled  it  forever 
that  no  more  laws  were  to  be  made  for  us  in  England. 

Is  there  any  more  sacred  or  memorable  a  place  than  the 
cradle  of  such  a  principle?  Athens  has  her  Acropolis,  but 
the  Greek  can  point  to  no  such  results.  London  has  her 
palace  and  Tower  and  her  St.  Stephen's  Chapel,  but  the  human 
race  owes  her  no  such  memories.  France  has  spots  marked 
by  the  snbiimest  devotion,  but  the  pilgrimage  of  the  man 
who  believes  and  hopes  for  the  human  race  is  not  to  Paris. 
When  the  flag  was  assailed,  when  the  merchant  waked  up 
from  his  gain,  the  scholar  from  his  studies,  and  the  regi- 
ments marched  one  by  one  through  the  streets,  which  were 
the  pavements  that  thrilled  under  their  footsteps?  What 
walls  did  they  salute  as  the  regimental  flags  floated  by  to 
Gettysburg  and  Antietam?  These,  these  were  the  scenes  that 
our  boys  carried  with  them  down  to  the  scenes  of  battle. 
State  Street,  Faneuil  Hall,  and  the  Old  South  Church. 


314  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

COYOTE. 


MARK  TWAIN. 

The  coyote  of  the  farther  deserts  is  a  long,  slim,  sick  and 
sorry-looking  skeleton  with  a  gray  wolf-skin  stretched  over 
it,  a  tolerably  bushy  tail  that  forever  sags  down  with  a 
despairing  expression  of  forsakenness  and  misery,  a  furtive 
and  evil  eye,  and  a  long,  sharp  face,  with  slightly  lifted  lip 
and  exposed  teeth. 

He  has  a  general  slinking  expression  all  over.  The  coyote 
is  a  living,  breathing  allegory  of  want.  He  is  always  hungry. 
He  is  always  poor,  out  of  luck,  and  friendless.  The  meanest 
creatures  despise  him,  and  even  the  fleas  would  desert  him 
for  a  velocipede.  He  is  so  spiritless  and  cowardly  that,  even 
while  his  exposed  teeth  are  pretending  a  threat,  the  rest  of 
his  face  is  apologizing  for  it. 

When  he  sees  you  he  lifts  his  lip  and  lets  a  flash  of  his 
teeth  out,  and  then  turns  a  little  out  of  the  course  he  was 
pursuing,  depresses  his  head  a  bit,  and  strikes  a  long,  soft- 
footed  trot  through  the  sage-brush,  glancing  over  his  shoul- 
der from  time  to  time,  till  he  is  about  out  of  easy  pistol- 
range,  and  then  he  stops  and  takes  a  deliberate  survey  of 
you. 

But,  if  you  start  a  swift-footed  dog  after  him,  you  will 
enjoy  it  ever  so  much — especially  if  it  is  a  dog  that  has  a 
good  opinion  of  himself,  and  has  been  brought  up  to  think 
that  he  knows  something  about  speed.  The  coyote  will  go 
swinging  gently  off  on  that  deceitful  trot  of  his,  and  every 
little  while  he  will  smile  a  fraudful  smile  over  his  shoulder 
that  will  fill  that  dog  entirely  full  of  encouragement  and 
worldly  ambition. 

All  this  time  the  dog  is  only  a  short  twenty  feet  behind 
the  coyote,  and,  to  save  the  life  of  him,  he  can  not  under- 
stand why  it  is  that  he  cannot  get  perceptibly  closer,  and 
he  begins  to  get  aggravated. 

And  next  the  dog  notices  that  he  is  getting  fagged,  and 
that  the  coyote  actually  has  to  slacken  speed  a  little,  to 
keep  from  running  away  from  him.  And  then  that  town  dog 
is  mad  in  earnest,  and  he  begins  to  strain,  and  weep,  and 


MARK  TWAIN.  315 

swear,  and  paw  the  sand  higher  than  ever,  and  reach  for  the 
coyote  with  concentrated  and  desperate  energy. 

This  spurt  finds  him  six  feet  behind  the  gliding  enemy, 
and  two  miles  from  his  friends.  And  then,  in  the  instant 
that  a  wild  new  hope  is  lighting  up  his  face,  the  coyote 
turns  and  smiles  blandly  upon  him  once  more,  and  with  a 
something  about  it  which  seems  to  say: 

"Well,  I  shall  have  to  tear  myself  away  from  you,  but — 
business  is  business,  and  it  will  not  do  for  me  to  be  fooling 
along  this  way  all  day."  And  forthwith  theru  is  a  rushing 
sound,  and  the  sudden  splitting  of  a  long  crack  through  the 
atmosphere;  and  behold,  that  dog  is  solitary  and  alone  in 
the  midst  of  a  vast  solitude! 


A  PLEA  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO. 


C.   C.   SMITH. 
(From   the    "Church   Union.") 

This  is  the  picture  of  the  negro  as  left  by  slavery:  physic- 
ally, he  was  impure;  mentally,  a  child;  morally,  a  curiosity; 
socially  and  politically  he  did  not  exist  at  all. 

Suddenly  the  scene  changes:  all  the  old  relations  are 
broken  up.  Freed  from  all  the  restraints  of  the  past  and 
cast  upon  his  own  resources,  just  as  he  is,  with  the  heredity 
of  sin  upon  him,  all  at  once  he  becomes  his  own  master:  he 
is  called  upon  to  govern  himself  and  others;  to  be  his  own 
educator;  turned  out  free — free  to  become  a  child  of  God  or 
free  to  become  an  imp  of  Satan. 

In  this  new  state,  the  first  influence  brought  to  bear  upon 
him  was  that  of  the  "carpet-bagger."  He  alienated  him  from 
his  former  master,  used  him  as  a  political  catspaw  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  own  corrupt  purposes,  and  then  left 
him  to  suffer  the  consequences.  Then  came  the  usurer,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  his  need  and  his  ignorance  to  practice  upon 
him  extortion.  Then  came  the  rum-seller,  taking  advantage 
of  his  weakness  to  debauch  him  with  strong  drink.  Then 
came  the  licentious  to  prey  upon  his  impurity.  He  became 


316  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

an  easy  prey  for  all  of  Satan's  minions.  He  lost  all  the  pro- 
tection which  slavery  gave  him  and  had  none  of  the  strength 
of  a  true  freeman.  Ignorance  unrestrained  became  sin;  and 
lust  unbridled  became  pollution.  Everybody's  distrust  of  him 
produced  self-distrust;  as  no  one  believed  in  him,  he  did  not 
believe  in  himself;  and  from  that  day  to  this  he  has  slept 
like  the  swine,  eaten  like  the  dog,  and  herded  like  the  cattle. 

Yet  for  these  a  plea  may  well  be  made.  In  the  midst  of  this 
dismal  swamp  flowers  grow,  by  contrast  all  the  brighter. 
They  all  love  their  homes:  tramps  they  are  not.  They  love 
their  country:  aliens  they  are  not.  They,  in  their  way,  be- 
lieve in  God:  atheists  they  are  not.  Commit  to  them  a  great 
trust  and  they  will  be  faithful:  traitors  they  are  not.  Hope- 
ful and  happy  they  are  in  the  midst  of  squalor  and  wretched- 
ness: pessimists  they  are  not.  They  stand  before  us  with  a 
weird,  wild,  poetic  life,  so  unique  that  our  disgust  is  turned 
into  interest  and  our  pity  to  love.  What  the  negro  may 
become  has  been  shown.  You,  white  man  of  the  South,  know 
what  he  was  when  raised  near  your  person.  No  one  need 
tell  you  of  his  right  royal  gallantry  and  politeness,  of  his 
unique  service  and  fidelity  even  unto  death. 

The  plea  is  not  for  money  as  alms  or  for  him  to  control: 
this  would  but  make  him  a  pauper.  It  is  not  that  you  should 
go  to  him  as  a  social  equal;  for  if  you  do  you  will  lose  your 
power  to  do  him  good:  some  one  must  come  to  him  from 
above.  Nor  is  the  plea  for  more  political  power.  He,  in  his 
present  state,  has  no  more  use  for  it  than  the  little  child  for 
the  sharp  knife.  No  one  can  govern  a  country  until  he  has 
learned  to  govern  himself. 

The  plea  is,  that  he  shall  not  suffer  because  he  is  black; 
and  that  he  be  protected  in  his  rights  by  the  law  of  the 
land,  by  the  law  administered  as  well  as  the  law  enacted: 
that  he  shall  not  be  condemned  until  proved  guilty.  But  the 
main  plea  is  that  he  have  a  chance  to  become  a  man  above 
the  fury  of  the  mob.  He  cannot  do  this  for  himself.  The 
plea  is  then  for  Christian  schools  to  train  men  and  women, 
teachers  and  preachers,  who  shall  lead  their  own  from  the 
land  of  bondage  to  the  land  of  promise. 


JOHN  B.  GOUGH.  317 

WHAT  IS  A  MINORITY  ? 


JOHN  B.   GOUGH. 

You  say  we  are  in  a  minority,  but  there  is  not  a  social, 
political,  or  religious  privilege  we  enjoy  to-day  that  was  not 
bought  for  us  by  the  blood  and  tears  and  patient  sufferings 
of  the  minority.  It  is  the  minority  that  have  vindicated 
humanity  in  every  struggle.  It  is  a  minority  that  have  stood 
in  the  van  of  every  moral  conflict  and  achieved  all  that  is 
noble  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  chosen  heroes  of 
this  earth  have  been  those  who  have  stepped  out  in  advance 
of  the  public  sentiment  of  their  age  and  stood,  like  glorious 
iconoclasts,  to  break  down  the  Dagon  of  old  abuses  wor- 
shipped by  their  fathers.  They  were  persecuted — the  very 
men  they  worked  for  hurled  at  them  contumely  and  scorn, 
yet  they  stood  firmly  at  their  post — and  if  you  read  the  his- 
tory of  this  world,  you  will  find  that  one  generation  has  ever 
been  busy  in  gathering  up  the  scattered  ashes  of  the  mar- 
tyred heroes  of  the  past  to  deposit  them  in  the  golden  urn  of 
a  nation's  history. 

Look  at  Scotland,  where  they  are  erecting  monuments — to 
whom? — to  the  Covenanters.  Ah,  they  were  in  a  minority. 
Read  their  history,  if  you  can,  without  the  blood  tingling  to 
the  tips  of  your  fingers.  Those  were  in  a  minority  that, 
through  blood,  and  tears,  and  bootings,  and  scourgings — 
dying  the  waters  with  their  blood,  and  staining  the  heather 
with  their  gore — fought  the  glorious  battle  of  religious  free- 
dom. 

Minority!  If  a  man  stand  up  for  the  right,  though  the 
right  be  on  the  scaffold,  while  the  wrong  sits  in  the  seat  of 
government,  if  he  stand  for  the  right,  though  he  eat,  with 
the  right  and  truth,  a  wretched  crust;  though  he  walk  with 
obloquy  and  scorn  in  the  by-lanes  and  streets,  while  the 
falsehood  and  wrong  ruffle  the  avenues  with  silken  attire,  let 
him  remember  that  wherever  the  right  and  truth  are  there 
are  always 

"Troops  of  beautiful,  bright  angels" 

gathered  round  him,  and  God  Himself  stands  within  the  dim 
future  keeping  watch  over  His  own.    If  a  man  stands  for  the 


318  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

right  and  the  truth,  though  every  man's  finger  be  pointed 
at  him,  though  every  woman's  lip  be  curled  at  him  in  scorn, 
he  stands  in  a  majority;  for  God  and  good  angels  are  with 
him,  and  greater  are  they  that  are  for  him  than  all  they  that 
be  against  him. 


A  RETROSPECT  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE. 


HENRY  WATTERSON. 

(Extract  from   his   oration  on   Lincoln,   first  delivered  before   the 
Lincoln  Union  at  the  Auditorium,   Chicago,  February  12,  1895.) 

What  was  the  mysterious  power  of  that  mysterious  man, 
Abraham  Lincoln?  His  was  the  genius  of  common  sense,  of 
common  sense  in  action;  of  common  sense  in  thought;  of 
common  sense  enriched  by  experience  and  unhindered  by  fear. 
"He  was  a  common  man,"  says  his  friend  Joshua  Speed, 
"expanded  into  giant  proportions;  well  acquainted  with  the 
people,  he  placed  his  hand  on  the  beating  pulse  of  the  na- 
tion, judged  of  its  disease,  and  was  ready  with  a  remedy." 
Inspired  he  was  truly,  as  Shakespeare  was  inspired;  as 
Mozart  was  inspired;  as  Burns  was  inspired;  each,  like  him, 
sprung  directly  from  the  people. 

I  look  into  the  crystal  globe  that,  slowly  turning,  tells  the 
story  of  his  life,  and  I  see  a  little  heart-broken  boy,  weeping 
by  the  outstretched  form  of  a  dead  mother,  then  bravely, 
nobly  trudging  a  hundred  miles  to  obtain  her  Christian 
burial.  I  see  this  motherless  lad  growing  to  manhood  amid 
scenes  that  seem  to  lead  to  nothing  but  abasement;  no 
teachers;  no  books;  no  chart,  except  his  own  untutored  mind; 
no  compass,  except  his  own  undisciplined  will;  no  light,  save 
light  from  Heaven;  yet,  like  the  caravel  of  Columbus,  strug- 
gling on  and  on  through  the  trough  of  the  sea,  always  toward 
the  destined  land.  I  see  the  full-grown  man,  stalwart  and 
brave,  an  athlete  in  activity  of  movement  and  strength  of 
limb,  yet  vexed  by  weird  dreams  and  visions— of  life,  of  love, 
of  religion,  sometimes  verging  on  despair.  I  see  the  mind, 
grown  as  robust  as  the  body,  throw  off  these  phantoms  of 


HENRY   WATTERSON.  319 

the  imagination  and  give  itself  wholly  to  the  workaday  uses 
of  the  world— the  rearing  of  children;  the  earning  of  bread; 
the  multiplied  duties  of  life.  I  see  the  party  leader,  self- 
confident  in  conscious  rectitude;  original,  because  it  was  not 
his  nature  to  follow;  potent,  because  he  was  fearless,  pur- 
suing his  convictions  with  earnest  zeal,  and  urging  them 
upon  his  fellows  with  the  resources  of  an  oratory  which  was 
hardly  more  impressive  than  it  was  many-sided.  I  see  him, 
the  preferred  among  his  fellows,  ascend  the  eminence  re- 
served for  him,  and  him  alone  of  all  the  statesmen  of  the 
time,  amid  the  derision  of  opponents  and  the  distrust  of 
supporters,  yet  unawed  and  unmoved,  because  thoroughly 
equipped  to  meet  the  emergency.  The  same  being,  from  first 
to  last;  the  poor  child  weeping  over  a  dead  mother;  the 
great  chief  sobbing  amid  the  cruel  horrors  of  war;  flinching 
not  from  duty,  nor  changing  his  lifelong  ways  of  dealing 
with  the  stern  realities  which  pressed  upon  him  and  hur- 
ried him  onward.  And,  last  scene  of  all,  that  ends  this 
strange,  eventful  history,  I  see  him  lying  dead  there  in  the 
capitol  of  the  nation,  to  which  he  had  rendered  "the  last, 
full  measure  of  his  devotion,"  the  flag  of  his  country  around 
him,  the  world  in  mourning.  And  asking  myself.  How  could 
any  man  have  hated  that  man,  I  ask  you,  How  can  any  man 
refuse  his  homage  to  his  memory?  Surely,  he  was  one  of 
God's  elect;  not  in  any  sense  a  creature  of  circumstance  or 
accident.  Recurring  to  the  doctrine  of  inspiration,  I  say  again 
and  again,  he  was  inspired  of  God,  and  I  cannot  see  how  any 
one  who  believes  in  that  doctrine  can  regard  him  as  any- 
thing else. 


320  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

PREFACE  TO  THE  CROWN  OF  WILD  OLIVE. 


JOHN  BUSKIN. 

If  your  life  were  but  a  fever  fit — the  madness  of  a  night, 
whose  follies  were  all  to  be  forgotten  in  the  dawn,  it  might 
matter  little  how  you  fretted  away  the  sickly  hours — what 
toys  you  snatched  at,  or  let  fall — what  visions  you  followed 
wistfully  with  the  deceived  eyes  of  sleepless  frenzy.  *  *  * 
But  if  this  life  be  no  dream,  *  *  *  if  all  the  peace  and 
power  and  joy  you  can  ever  win  must  be  won  now;  and  all 
fruit  of  victory  gathered  here,  or  never  --  will  you  still, 
throughout  the  puny  totality  of  your  life,  waste  yourselves  in 
the  fire  for  vanity?  If  there  is  no  rest  which  remaineth  for 
you,  is  there  none  you  might  presently  take?  Was  this  grass 
of  the  earth  made  green  for  your  shroud  only,  not  for  your 
bed?  and  can  you  never  lie  down  upon  it,  but  only  under 
it?  The  heathen,  to  whose  creed  you  have  returned,  thought 
not  so.  They  knew  that  life  brought  its  contest,  but  they 
expected  from  it  also  the  crown  of  all  contest:  No  proud 
one!  'no  jewelled  circlet  flaming  through  Heaven  above  the 
height  of  the  unmerited  throne;  only  some  few  leaves  of  wild 
olive,  cool  to  the  tired  brow,  through  a  few  years  of  peace. 
It  should  have  been  of  gold,  they  thought;  but  Jupiter  was 
poor;  this  was  the  best  the  god  could  give  them.  Seeking 
a  greater  than  this  they  had  known  it  a  mockery.  Not  in 
war,  not  in  wealth,  not  in  tyranny,  was  there  any  happiness 
to  be  found  for  them — only  in  kindly  peace,  fruitful  and  free. 
The  wreath  was  to  be  of  wild  olive,  mark  you— the  tree 
that  grows  carelessly,  tufting  the  rocks  with  no  vivid  bloom, 
no  verdure  of  branch;  only  with  soft  snow  of  blossom,  and 
scarcely  fulfilled  fruit,  mixed  with  gray  leaf  and  thorn-set 
stem;  no  fastening  of  diadem  for  you  but  with  such  sharp 
embroidery!  But  this,  such  as  it  is,  you  may  win  while  yet 
you  live;  type  of  great  honor  and  sweet  rest.  Free-hearted- 
ness,  and  graciousness,  and  undisturbed  trust,  and  requited 
love,  and  the  sight  of  the  peace  of  others,  and  the  ministry 
to  their  pain — these,  and  the  blue  sky  above  you,  and  the 
sweet  waters  and  flowers  of  the  earth  beneath;  and  mysteries 
and  presences,  innumerable,  of  living  things — these  may  yet 
be  here  your  riches;  untormenting  and  divine. 


JEROME   K.   JEROME.  321 

ON  BEING  HARD  UP. 


JEROME   K.   JEROME. 

There  have  been  a  good  many  funny  things  said  and  writ- 
ten about  hardupishness,  but  the  reality  is  not  funny,  for  all 
that.  It  is  not  funny  to  have  to  haggle  over  pennies.  It 
isn't  funny  to  be  thought  mean  and  stingy.  It  isn't  funny  to 
be  shabby,  and  to  be  ashamed  of  your  address.  No,  there 
is  nothing  at  all  funny  in  poverty— to  the  poor.  It  is  hell 
upon  earth  to  a  sensitive  man;  and  many  a  brave  gentleman 
who  would  have  faced  the  labors  of  Hercules  has  had  his 
heart  broken  by  its  petty  miseries. 

It  is  not  actual  discomforts  themselves  that  are  hard  to 
bear.  Who  would  mind  roughing  it  a  bit,  if  that  were  all 
it  meant?  What  cared  Robinson  Crusoe  for  a  patch  on  his 
trousers?  What  did  it  matter  to  him  if  his  toes  did  stick 
out  of  his  boots?  and  what  if  his  umbrella  was  a  cotton  one, 
so  long  as  it  kept  the  rain  off?  His  shabbiness  did  not  trou- 
ble him:  there  were  none  of  his  friends  round  about  to 
sneer  at  him. 

One  becomes  used  to  being  hard  up,  as  one  becomes  used  to 
everything  else,  by  the  help  of  that  wonderful  old  homeo- 
pathic doctor,  Time.  You  can  tell  at  a  glance  the  difference 
between  the  old  hand  and  the  novice;  between  the  case- 
hardened  man  who  has  been  used  to  shift  and  struggle  for 
years,  and  the  poor  devil  of  a  beginner,  striving  to  hide  his 
misery,  and  in  constant  agony  of  fear  lest  he  should  be 
found  out.  Nothing  shows  this  difference  more  clearly  than 
the  way  in  which  each  will  pawn  his  watch.  As  the  poet 
says  somewhere: 

"True  ease  in  pawning  comes  from  art,  not  chance." 

Dear  old  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  know  nothing  about 
being  hard  up — and  may  they  never,  bless  their  gray  old 
heads— look  upon  the  pawnshop  as  the  last  stage  of  degra- 
dation; but  those  who  know  it  better  are  often  surprised, 
like  the  little  boy  who  dreamed  he  went  to  Heaven,  at  meet- 
ing so  many  people  there  that  they  never  expected  to  see. 
For  my  part,  I  think  it  a  much  more  independent  course 
than  borrowing  from  friends,  and  I  always  try  to  impress 


322  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

this  upon  those  of  my  acquaintance  who  incline  toward 
"wanting  a  couple  of  dollars  till  the  day  after  to-morrow." 
But  they  won't  all  see  it.  One  of  them  once  remarked  that 
he  objected  to  the  principle  of  the  thing.  I  fancy  if  he  had 
said  it  was  the  interest  that  he  objected  to  he  would  have 
been  nearer  the  truth;  twenty-five  per  cent  certainly  does 
come  heavy. 

There  are  degrees  in  being  hard  up.  We  are  all  hard  up, 
more  or  less — most  of  us  more.  Some  are  hard  up  for  a 
thousand  dollars,  some  for  ten  cents.  Just  at  this  moment 
I  am  hard  up  myself  for  a  fiver.  I  only  want  it  for  a  day 
or  two.  I  should  be  certain  of  paying  it  back  within  a  week 
at  the  outside,  and  if  any  gentleman  among  my  hearers 
would  kindly  lend  it  me,  I  should  be  very  much  obliged 
indeed. 


THE  MAIDEN  SPEECH  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

(Adapted.) 

On  November  7,  1837,  Rev.  E.  P.  Lovejoy  was  shot  by  a 
mob  at  Alton,  Illinois,  while  attempting  to  defend  his  print- 
ing press  from  destruction.  When  this  was  known  in  Bos- 
ton, William  Ellery  Channing  headed  a  petition  to  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen,  asking  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  for  a  public 
meeting.  The  request  was  refused.  Dr.  Channing  then  ad- 
dressed a  very  impressive  letter  to  his  fellow-citizens,  which 
resulted  in  a  meeting  of  influential  gentlemen  at  the  Old 
Court  Room. 

Resolutions,  drawn  by  Hon.  B.  F.  Hallett,  were  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  measures  taken  to  secure  a  much  larger 
number  of  names  to  the  petition.  This  call  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  obeyed.  At  this  meeting  Dr.  Channing  made  a 
brief  and  eloquent  address.  The  Hon.  James  T.  Austin,  At- 
torney-General of  the  Commonwealth,  followed  in  a  speech  of 
the  utmost  bitterness.  He  compared  the  slaves  to  a  menagerie 
of  wild  beasts,  and  the  rioters  at  Alton  to  the  "orderly  mob" 
which  threw  the  tea  overboard  in  1773 — talked  of  the  "con- 
flict of  laws"  between  Missouri  and  Illinois— declared  that 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.         ,  323 

Lovejoy  was  "presumptuous  and  imprudent,"  and  "died  as 
the  fool  dieth."  The  speech  of  the  Attorney-General  pro- 
duced great  excitement  throughout  the  hall.  Wendell  Phil- 
lips, Esq.,  who  had  not  expected  to  take  part  in  the  meeting, 
rose  to  reply.  That  portion  of  the  assembly  which  sym- 
pathized with  Mr.  Austin  now  became  so  boisterous,  that 
Mr.  Phillips  had  difficulty  for  a  while  in  getting  the  atten- 
tion of  the  audience. 

"Mr.  Chairman,"  he  began,  "I  hope  I  shall  be  permitted  to 
express  my  surprise  at  the  sentiments  of  the  last  speaker — 
surprise  not  only  at  such  sentiments  from  such  a  man,  but 
at  the  applause  they  have  received  within  these  walls.  A 
comparison  has  been  drawn  between  the  events  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  tragedy  at  Alton.  We  have  heard  it  asserted 
here,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  that  Great  Britain  had  a  right  to  tax 
the  colonies,  and  we  have  heard  the  mob  at  Alton,  the 
drunken  murderers  of  Lovejoy,  compared  to  those  patriot 
fathers  who  threw  the  tea  overboard!  Fellow-citizens,  is  this 
Faneuil  Hall  doctrine? 

"Shame  on  the  American  who  calls  the  tea  tax  and  stamp- 
act  laws!  Our  fathers  resisted,  not  the  king's  prerogative, 
but  the  king's  usurpation.  To  find  any  other  account,  you 
must  read  our  Revolutionary  history  upside  down.  Our 
State  archives  are  loaded  with  arguments  of  John  Adams 
to  prove  the  taxes  laid  by  the  British  Parliament  unconsti- 
tutional— beyond  its  power.  To  draw  the  conduct  of  our 
ancestors  into  a  precedent  for  mobs,  for  a  right  to  resist 
laws  we  ourselves  have  enacted,  is  an  insult  to  their  mem- 
ory. The  difference  between  the  excitements  of  those  days 
and  our  own,  which  the  gentleman  in  kindness  to  the 
latter  has  overlooked,  is  simply  this:  the  men  of  that  day 
went  for  the  right,  as  secured  by  the  laws.  Sir,  when  I 
heard  the  gentleman  lay  down  principles  which  place  the 
murderers  of  Alton  side  by  side  with  Otis  and  Hancock, 
with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I  thought  those  pictured  lips  would 
have  broken  into  voice  to  rebuke  the  recreant  American — 
the  slanderer  of  the  dead.  The  gentleman  said  that  he 
should  sink  into  insignificance  if  he  dared  to  gainsay  the 
principles  of  these  resolutions.  Sir,  for  the  sentiments  he  has 
uttered,  on  soil  consecrated  by  the  prayers  of  Puritans 


324  MODERN   AMERICAN    SPEAKER. 

and  the  blood  of  patriots,  the  earth  should  have  yawned 
and  swallowed  him  up. 

"Imagine  yourself  present  when  the  first  news  of  Bunker 
Hill  battle  reached  a  New  England  town.  The  tale  would 
have  run  thus:  'The  patriots  are  routed — the  red-coats  vic- 
torious— Warren  lies  dead  upon  the  field.'  With  what  scorn 
would  that  Tory  have  been  received,  who  should  have  charged 
Warren  with  imprudence!  who  should  have  said  that, 
bred  a  physician,  he  was  'out  of  place'  in  that  battle,  and 
'died  as  the  fool  dieth!'  As  much  as  thought  is  better  than 
money,  so  much  is  the  cause  in  which  Lovejoy  died  nobler 
than  a  mere  question  of  taxes.  James  Otis  thundered  in 
this  hall  when  the  king  did  but  touch  his  pocket.  Imagine, 
if  you  can,  his  indignant  eloquence,  had  England  offered  to 
put  a  gag  upon  his  lips. 

"I  am  glad,  sir,  to  see  this  crowded  house.  It  is  good  for 
us  to  be  here.  When  Liberty  is  in  danger,  Faneuil  Hall 
has  the  right,  it  is  her  duty,  to  strike  the  key-note  for  these 
United  States." 


SHALL  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  BE 
RE-ASSERTED. 


(Adapted.) 

The  Republican  party  held  its  second  national  convention 
at  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  1860.  It  had  been  determined 
that  the  platform  of  the  convention  should  be  so  shaped  that 
the  less  convinced  and  more  timid  members  of  the  party 
should  not  be  scared  from  its  acceptance  by  too  radical  utter- 
ances. Among  the  more  advanced  of  the  Republican  leaders 
was  Mr.  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio.  He  hoped  to  make  of 
the  party  an  instrument  not  only  for  checking  the  extension 
of  slavery,  but  for  its  ultimate  extinction. 

To  serve  this  purpose,  when  the  platform  was  reported  on 
the  second  day,  he  proposed  to  add  as  an  amendment  the 
words  of  the  preamble  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
"that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among 


DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE   BE    RE-ASSERTED.       325 

these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Mr. 
Giddings  urged  at  some  length  the  adoption  of  his  amend- 
ment. The  great  principle  it  embodied  had  been  the  founda- 
tion of  freedom  for  two  hundred  years.  And  he  asked  the 
Republican  party  not  to  recede  from  the  position  it  had 
occupied  at  the  first  formation,  when  it  had  based  the  ground- 
work of  freedom  upon  these  very  words.  The  motion  was 
adopted,  and  the  oldest  champion,  the  one  who  had  re- 
ceived the  most  scars  in  the  good  fight  which  the  party 
now  wished  to  bring  to  a  decision,  left  the  hall  distressed  and 
embittered. 

At  that  moment  Mr.  Geo.  Wm.  Curtis  arose.  "It  seemed  to 
me,"  he  afterward  said,  "that  the  spirits  of  all  the  martyrs 
to  freedom  were  marching  out  of  the  convention  behind  the 
venerable  form  of  that  indignant  and  outraged  old  man." 
He  tried  to  renew  the  motion  of  Mr.  Giddings.  His 
voice  was  at  first  drowned  by  the  clamor  of  the  opposing 
faction.  Folding  his  arms  he  calmly  faced  the  uproarious 
multitude  and  waited.  The  spectacle  of  a  man  who  would 
not  be  put  down  at  length  so  far  amused  the  delegates  that 
they  stopped  to  look  at  him.  "Gentlemen,"  rang  out  that 
musical  voice  in  tones  of  calm  intensity,  "this  is  the  con- 
vention of  free  speech,  and  I  have  been  given  the  floor.  I 
have  only  a  few  words  to  say  to  you,  but  I  shall  say  them  if 
I  stand  here  until  tomorrow  morning."  Again  the  tumult 
threatened  the  roof  of  the  wigwam  and  again  the  speaker 
waited.  His  pluck  and  the  chairman's  gavel  soon  gave  him 
another  chance.  Skillfully  changing  the  amendment  to  the 
resolution,  it  made  it  in  order,  lie  spoke  with  a  tongue  of  fire 
in  its  defense,  and  at  last  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  have  to  ask 
this  convention  whether  they  are  prepared  to  go  upon  the 
record,  and  before  the  country  as  voting  down  the  words  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence?  I  ask,  gentlemen,  gravely 
to  consider  that  in  the  amendment  which  I  have  proposed  I 
have  done  nothing  that  the  soundest  and  safest  man  in  all 
the  land  might  not  do,  and  I  ask  gentlemen  to  think  well  be- 
fore, upon  the  free  prairies  of  the  West,  in  the  summer  of  1860, 
they  dare  to  wince  and  quail  before  the  men  of  Philadelphia 
of  1776 — before  they  dare  to  shrink  from  the  words  that  those 
great  men  enunciated." 


326  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

The  speech  fell  like  a  spark  upon  tinder,  and  the  amend- 
ment was  adopted  with  a  shout  of  enthusiasm  more  unani- 
mous and  deafening  than  the  yell  with  which  it  had  been 
previously  rejected.  No  further  opposition  was  made  to  re- 
asserting the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


THE  NEW  UNION. 


HENRY  WATTERSON. 

The  duty  which  draws  us  together  and  the  day,  although 
appointed  by  law,  conies  to  us  laden  with  a  deeper  meaning 
than  they  have  ever  borne  before;  and  the  place  which  wit- 
nesses our  coming  invests  the  occasion  with  Increased  sol- 
emnity and  significance.  Within  this  dread  but  beautiful 
city,  consecrated  in  all  our  hearts  and  all  our  homes,  two  plots 
of  ground  with  but  a  hillock  between  have  been  set  aside 
to  mark  the  resting  of  the  dead  of  two  armies  which  in  life 
were  called  hostile,  the  Army  of  the  Union,  the  Army  of  the 
Confederacy.  We  come  to  decorate  the  graves  of  those  who 
died  fighting  for  the  Union.  Presently  others  shall  come  to 
decorate  the  graves  of  those  who  died  for  the  Confederacy. 
Yet  if  these  flower-covered  mounds  could  open  and  those  who 
inhabit  them  could  come  forth,  not  as  disembodied  spirits, 
but  in  the  sentient  flesh  and  blood  which  they  wore  when 
they  went  hence  they  would  rejoice  as  we  do  that  the  hopes 
of  both  have  been  at  last  fulfilled,  and  that  the  Confederacy, 
swallowed  up  by  the  Union,  lives  again  in  American  man- 
hood and  brotherhood,  such  as  were  contemplated  by  the 
makers  of  the  republic. 

To  those  of  us  who  were  the  comrades  and  contemporaries 
of  the  dead  that  are  buried  here,  who  survived  the  ordeal 
of  battle  and  who  live  to  bless  the  day,  there  is  nothing 
strange  or  unnatural  in  this,  because  we  have  seen  it  coming 
for  a  long  time;  we  have  seen  it  coming  in  the  kinship  of 
ties  even  as  close  as  those  of  a  common  country;  in  the  ro- 
bust intercourse  of  the  forum  and  the  market  place;  in  the 
sacred  interchanges  of  the  domestic  affections;  but,  above  all, 
in  the  prattle  of  little  children  who  cannot  distinguish  be- 
tween the  grandfather  who  wore  the  blue  and  the  grandfather 
who  wore  the  gray. 


HENRY   CLAY.  327 

THE  GREEK  REVOLUTION. 


HENRY  CLAY. 
(Delivered  in  the  U.  S.  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  20,  1824.) 

There  is  reason  to  apprehend  that  a  tremendous  storm  is 
ready   to    burst    upon    our    happy    country,  "one    which  may 
call  into  action  all  our  vigor,  courage  and  resources.     Is  it 
wise  or  prudent,  in  preparing  to  breast  the  storm,  if  it  must 
come,  to  talk  to  this  nation  of  its  incompetency  to  repel  Euro- 
pean aggression,  to  lower  its  spirit,  to  weaken  its  moral  en- 
ergy, and  to  qualify  it  for  easy  conquest  and  base  submission? 
If  there  be  any  reality  in  the  dangers  which  are  supposed  to 
encompass  us,  should  we  not  animate  the  people,  and  adjure 
them  to  believe^  as  I  do,  that  our  resources  are  ample;   and 
that  we  can  bring  into  the  field  a  million  of  freemen,  ready 
to  exhaust  their  last  drop  of  blood,  and  to  spend  the  last 
cent  in  the  defense  of  the  country,  its  liberty,  and  its  insti- 
tutions?   Sir,  are  these,  if  united,  to  be  conquered  by  all  Eu- 
rope combined?     All  the  perils  to  which  we  can  possibly  be 
exposed  are  much  less  in  reality  than  the  imagination  is  dis- 
posed to  paint  them.    And  they  are  best  averted  by  an  habit- 
ual contemplation  of  them,  by  reducing  them  to  their  true 
dimensions.    If  combined  Europe  is  to  precipitate  itself  upon 
us,  we  cannot  too  soon  begin  to  invigorate  our  strength,  to 
teach  our  heads  to  think,  our  hearts  to  conceive,  and  our  arms 
to  execute,   the  high  and  noble   deeds  which   belong   to  the 
character  and  glory  of  our  country.     The  experience  of  the 
world  instructs  us  that  the  conquests  are  already  achieved, 
which  are  boldly  and  firmly  resolved  upon,  and  that  men  only 
become  slaves  who  have  ceased  to  resolve  to  be  free.    If  we 
wish  to  cover  ourselves  with  the  best  of  all  armor,   let  us 
not  discourage  our  people,  let  us  stimulate  their  ardor,  let 
us  sustain  their  resolution,  let  us  proclaim  to  them  that  we 
feel  as  they  feel,  and  that,  with  them,  we  are  determined  to 
live  or  die  like  freemen. 

But,  sir,  it  is  not  for  Greece  alone  that  I  desire  to  see  this 
measure  adopted.  It  will  give  to  her  but  little  support,  and 
that  ^purely  of  a  moral  kind.  It  is  principally  for  America, 


328  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

for  the  credit  and  character  of  our  common  country,  for  our 
own  unsullied  name,  that  I  hope  to  see  it  pass.  Mr.  Chair- 
man, what  appearance  on  the  page  of  history  would  a  record 
like  this  exhibit?  "In  the  month  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  and  Savior  1824,  while  all  European  Christendom 
beheld,  with  cold  and  unfeeling  indifference.,  the  unexampled 
wrongs  and  inexpressible  misery  of  Christian  Greece,  a  prop- 
osition was  made  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  al- 
most the  sole,  the  last,  the  greatest  depository  of  human  hope 
and  human  freedom,  the  representative  of  a  gallant  nation, 
containing  a  million  of  freemen  ready  to  fly  to  arms,  while 
the  people  of  that  nation  were  spontaneously  expressing  its 
deep-toned  feeling,  and  the  whole  continent,  by  one  simul- 
taneous emotion,  was  rising,  and  solemnly  and  anxiously  sup- 
plicating and  invoking  high  heaven  to  spare  and  succor 
Greece,  and  to  invigorate  her  arms,  in  her  glorious  cause, 
while  temples  and  senate  house  were  alike  resounding  with 
one  burst  of  generous  and  holy  sympathy; — in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  and  Savior,  that  Savior  of  Greece  and  of  us,  a  prop- 
osition was  offered  in  the  American  Congress  to  send  a  mes- 
senger to  Greece  to  inquire  into  her  state  and  condition,  with 
a  kind  expression  of  our  good  wishes  and  our  sympathies — 
and  it  was  rejected!"  Go  home,  if  you  can,  go  home,  if  you 
dare,  to  your  constituents,  and  tell  them  that  you  voted  it 
down;  meet,  if  you  can,  the  appalling  countenances  of  those 
who  sent  you  here,  and  tell  them  that  you  shrunk  from  the 
declaration  of  your  own  sentiments;  that  you  cannot  tell 
how,  but  that  some  unknown  dread,  some  indescribable  ap- 
prehension, some  indefinable  danger,  drove  you  from  your  pur- 
pose; that  the  spectres  of  scimeters  and  crowns  and  cres- 
cents gleamed  before  you  and  alarmed  you;  and  that  you  sup- 
pressed all  the  noble  feelings  prompted  by  religion,  by  lib- 
erty, by  national  independence,  and  by  humanity. 


HENRY   CABOT   LODGE.  329 


THE  BLUE  AND  THE  GRAY. 

HENRY   CABOT   LODGE. 

I  was  a  boy  ten  years  old  when  the  troops  marched  away  to 
defend  Washington.  I  saw  the  troops,  month  after  month, 
pour  through  the  streets  of  Boston.  I  saw  Shaw  go  forth  at 
the  head  of  his  black  regiment,  and  Bartlett,  shattered  in 
body  but  dauntless  in  soul,  ride  by  to  carry  what  was  left  of 
him  once  more  to  the  battlefields  of  the  Republic.  To  my 
boyish  mind  one  thing  alone  was  clear,  that  the  soldiers,  as 
they  marched  past,  were  all,  in  that  supreme  hour,  heroes 
and  patriots. 

And  you,  brave  men  who  wore  the  gray,  would  be  the  first 
to  hold  me  or  any  other  son  of  the  North  in  just  contempt 
if  I  should  say  that  now  it  was  all  over  I  thought  the  North 
was  wrong  and  the  result  of  the  war  a  mistake.  To  the  men 
who  fought  the  battles  of  the  Confederacy  we  hold  out  our 
hands  freely,  frankly  and  gladly.  We  have  no  bitter  mem- 
ories to  revive,  no  reproaches  to  utter.  Differ  in  politics  and 
in  a  thousand  other  ways  we  must  and  shall  in  all  good  na- 
ture, but  never  let  us  differ  with  each  other  on  sectional  or 
state  lines,  by  race  or  creed. 

We  welcome  you,  soldiers  of  Virginia,  as  others  more  elo- 
quent than  I  have  said,  to  New  England.  We  welcome  you 
to  old  Massachusetts.  We  welcome  you  to  Boston  and  Fan- 
euil  Hall.  In  your  presence  here,  and  at  the  sound  of  your 
voices  beneath  this  historic  roof,  the  years  roll  back,  and  we 
see  the  figure  and  hear  again  the  ringing  tones  of  your  great 
orator,  Patrick  Henry,  declaring  to  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress: "The  distinctions  between  Virginians,  Pennsylvan- 
ians,  New  Yorkers  and  New  Englanders  are  no  more.  I  am 
not  a  Virginian,  but  an  American." 

A  distinguished  Frenchman,  as  he  stood  among  the  graves 
at  Arlington,  said:  "Only  a  great  people  is  capable  of  a 
great  civil  war."  Let  us  add  with  thankful  hearts  that  only 
a  great  people  is  capable  of  a  great  reconciliation.  Side  by 
side,  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  led  the  Colonies  into  the 
War  for  Independence.  Side  by  side,  they  founded  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States.  Morgan  and  Greene,  Lee  and 


330  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 

Knox,  Moultrie  and  Prescott,  men  of  the  South  and  men  of 
the  North,  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  wore  the  same 
uniform  of  buff  and  blue— the  uniform  of  Washington. 

Mere  sentiment  all  this,  some  may  say.  But  it  is  sentiment, 
true  sentiment,  that  has  moved  the  world.  Sentiment  fought 
the  war,  and  sentiment  has  reunited  us.  So  I  say  that  the 
sentiment  manifested  by  your  presence  here,  brethren  of  Vir- 
ginia, sitting  side  by  side  with  those  who  wore  the  blue,  tells 
that  if  war  should  break  again  upon  the  country  the  sons  of 
Virginia  and  Massachusetts  would,  as  in  the  olden  days,  stand 
once  more  shoulder  to  shoulder,  with  no  distinction  in  the 
colors  they  wear.  It  is  fraught  with  tidings  of  peace  on  earth, 
and  you  may  read  its  meanings  in  the  words  on  yonder  pic- 
ture, "Liberty  and  union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  insep- 
arable." 


CHIEF  JUSTICE  HARSHALL. 


EDWARD  J.   PHELPS. 

If  Marshall  had  been  only  what  I  suppose  all  the  world  ad- 
mits he  was,  a  great  lawyer  and  a  very  great  judge,  his  life, 
after  all,  might  have  had  no  greater  historical  significance, 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  than  the  lives  of  many  other 
illustrious  Americans  who  in  their  day  and  generation  have 
served  and  adorned  their  country. 

But  it  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  as  a  great  judge  merely,  or  in 
comparison  with  other  great  judges,  that  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall will  have  his  place  in  ultimate  history.  The  test  of  his- 
torical greatness,  the  sort  of  greatness  that  becomes  import- 
ant in  future  history,  is  not  great  ability  merely.  It  is  great 
ability,  combined  with  great  opportunity,  greatly  employed. 
The  question  will  be,  how  much  a  man  did  to  shape  the  cause 
of  human  affairs,  or  to  mould  the  character  of  human  thought. 
Did  he  make  history,  or  did  he  only  accompany  and  embel- 
lish it?  Did  he  shape  destiny,  or  was  he  carried  along  by 
destiny?  These  are  the  inquiries  that  posterity  will  address 
to  every  name  that  challenges  permanent  admiration,  or  seeks 
a  place  in  final  history.  Now  it  is  precisely  in  that  point  of 


EDWARD   J.    PHELPS  331 

view,  as  it  appears  to  me,  that  adequate  justice  has  not  yet 
been  done  to  Chief  Justice  Marshall.  He  has  been  estimated 
as  the  lawyer  and  the  judge,  without  proper  consideration  of 
how  much  more  he  accomplished  and  how  much  more  is  due 
him  from  his  country  and  the  world,  than  can  ever  be  due  to 
any  mere  lawyer  or  judge.  The  assertion  may  perhaps  be 
regarded  as  a  strong  one,  but  I  believe  it  will  bear  the  test  of 
reflection,  and  certainly  the  test  of  reading  in  American  his- 
tory, that,  practically  speaking,  we  are  indebted  to  Chief  Jus- 
tice Marshall  for  the  American  Constitution.  I  do  not"  mean 
the  authorship  of  it,  or  the  adoption  of  it,  although  in  that 
he  had  a  considerable  share,  but  for  that  practical  construc- 
tion, that  wise  and  far-seeing  administration,  which  raised  it 
from  a  doubtful  experiment,  adopted  with  great  hesitation 
and  likely  to  be  readily  abandoned  if  its  practical  working 
had  not  been  successful,  raised  it,  I  say,  from  a  doubtful  ex- 
periment to  a  harmonious,  a  permanent  and  a  beneficent  sys- 
tem of  government,  sustained  by  the  judgment  and  estab- 
lished in  the  affection  of  the  people.  He  was  not  the  com- 
mentator upon  American  constitutional  law;  he  was  not  the 
expounder  of  it;  he  was  the  author,  the  creator  of  it. 

The  future  Hallam,  who  shall  sit  down  with  patient  study 
to  trace  and  elucidate  the  constitutional  history  of  this  coun- 
try, to  follow  it  from  its  origin  through  its  experimental  per- 
iod and  its  growth  to  its  perfection,  to  pursue  it  from  its 
cradle,  not,  I  trust,  to  its  grave,  but  rather  to  its  immortality, 
will  find  it  all,  for  its  first  half  century,  in  those  luminous 
judgments,  in  which  Marshall,  with  an  unanswerable  logic 
and  a  pen  of  light,  laid  before  the  world  the  conclusions  of 
his  court. 


GENUINE  REFORMS. 


MARY   T.    LATHROP.  ' 

It  seems,  sometimes,  to  the  careless  and  gainsaying  world 
as  if  reforms  and  reformers  came  too  soon.  They  are  like 
unripe  fruit  brought  into  market  after  a  windstorm,  with 


332  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

immense  possibilities  in  their  future,  but  lacking  the  days  and 
the  months  of  rain  and  of  sunshine  in  order  to  bring  them  to 
ripeness  and  to  fullness. 

But  if  we  look  carefully  at  the  philosophy  of  reform,  when 
it  passes  out  of  the  tumult  of  discussion  into  the  calmness  of 
history,  we  shall  see  that  reforms  always  come  at  the  right 
time,  come  in  the  logic  of  events,  and  the  logic  of  events  is 
only  another  name  for  the  logic  of  Almighty  God. 

God's  year  is  not  all  spring  time,  when  under  our  feet  and 
over  our  head  is  the  thrill  of  a  new  and  an  awakening  life. 
God's  year  is  not  all  lavish,  glorious  summer,  when  we  stand 
amid  the  wealth  of  bough  and  blossom;  God's  year  is  not  all 
autumn,  when  it  drops  its  ripened  miracle  into  our  hands  in 
the  shape  of  purple  clusters  and  golden  fruit.  Part  of  God's 
year  is  winter,  colorless,  odorless,  flowerless,  stilly,  sodden 
deep  under  the  snow. 

What  is  true  of  God's  year  in  His  material  universe,  that 
ripens  to  beauty  and  perfection  its  fruitage,  is  true  of  the  long 
cycles  of  His  moral  world  where  he  ripens  human  thought  and 
human  progress.  All  of  God's  centuries  are  not  spring  time, 
full  of  thrilling  life;  not  all  are  lavish,  glorious  summer,  not 
all  are  ripe  and  golden  autumn.  Part  of  them  are  odorless, 
colorless,  sodden  deep  under  the  snow.  But  always  in  God's 
winter  He  is  getting  ready  for  another  spring,  and  always  in 
the  winter  of  human  progress  and  human  thought  God  is  get- 
ting ready  for  moral  victories  and  grand  autumns  of  gathered 
fruitage. 

It  was  winter  for  Israel  when  they  were  under  the  bondage 
of  Egypt  and  Moses  was  on  the  "back  side  of  the  mountain 
feeding  sheep  and  learning  patience  as  a  leader;"  but  it  was 
springtime  when  he  stood  by  the  Red  Sea,  and  it  was  summer 
when  the  Israelites  were  led  through  the  waters. 

It  was  winter  for  the  world  when  the  church  had  drifted 
into  the  darkness  of  the  middle  ages  and  Luther  prayed  as  a 
monk  in  a  convent.  But  it  was  summer  when  that  grand 
soul,  alone  with  God,  nailed  his  theses  to  the  cathedral  door, 
and  awoke  not  only  Germany,  but  the  world. 

God's  prophets  always  have  the  right  of  way.  He  pre- 
pares the  hour  for  the  man  and  the  man  for  the  hour. 


T.   DeWITT   TALMADGE.  333 

SUFFERING  FOR  OTHERS. 


T.  DeWITT  TALMADGE. 

What  an  exalting  principle  is  that  which  leads  one  to  suf- 
fer for  another!  Nothing  so  kindles  enthusiasm,  or  awakens 
eloquence,  or  chimes  poetic  cants,'  or  moves  nations.  It  is 
no  new  principle  for  it  is  as  old  as  human  nature.  Pang  for 
pang,  hunger  for  hunger,  fatigue  for  fatigue,  tear  for  tear, 
blood  for  blood,  life  for  life,  we  see  every  day  illustrated. 
The  act  of  substitution  is  no  novelty,  for  I  could  take  you 
into  this  city,  and  before  sundown  point  you  to  five  hundred 
cases  of  substitution  and  voluntary  suffering  of  one  in  behalf 
of  another. 

About  thirty-eight  years  ago  there  went  forth  from  our 
Northern  and  Southern  homes  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
to  do  battle  for  their  country.  All  the  poetry  of  war  soon 
vanished,  and  left  them  nothing  but  the  terrible  prose.  They 
waded  knee-deep  in  mud.  They  marched  till  their  cut  feet 
marked  the  earth.  They  were  swindled  out  of  their  honest 
rations,  and  lived  on  meat  not  fit  for  a  dog.  They  had  jaws 
fractured,  and  eyes  extinguished,  and  limbs  shot  away. 
Thousands  of  them  cried  for  water  as  they  lay  dying  on  the 
field  the  night  after  battle,  and  got  it  not.  They  were  home- 
sick, but  received  no  message  from  their  loved  ones.  They 
died  in  barns,  in  bushes,  in  ditches,  the  buzzards  of  the  sum- 
mer heat  the  only  attendants  on  their  obsequies.  No  one 
but  the  infinite  God,  who  knows  everything,  knows  the  ten 
thousandth  part  of  the  length,  and  breadth,  and  depth  and 
height  of  the  anguish  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  battle- 
fields. Why  did  these  fathers  leave  their  children  and  go  to 
the  front,  and  why  did  these  young  men,  postponing  the  mar- 
riage day,  start  out  into  the  probabilities  of  never  coming 
back?  For  the  country  they  died.  It  was  the  principle  of 
substitution.  Suffering  for  another! 

In  the  legal  profession  I  see  the  same  principle  of  self-sac- 
rifice. In  1846,  William  Freeman,  a  pauperized  and  idiotic 
negro,  was  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  on  trial  for  murder.  He  had 
slain  the  entire  Van  Nest  family.  The  foaming  wrath  of  the 
community  could  be  kept  off  him  only  by  armed  constables. 


334  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Who  would  volunteer  to  be  his  counsel?  No  attorney  wanted 
to  sacrifice  his  popularity  by  such  an  ungrateful  task.  All 
were  silent  save  one,  a  young  lawyer  with  feeble  voice,  that 
could  hardly  be  heard  outside  the  bar,  pale  and  thin  and  awk- 
ward. It  was  William  H.  Seward  who  saw  that  the  prisoner 
was  irresponsible  and  idiotic,  and  ought  to  be  put  in  an  asy- 
lum rather  than  put  to  death,  the  heroic  counsel  uttering 
these  beautiful  words: 

"I  speak  now  in  the  hearing  of  a  people  who  have  pre- 
judged the -prisoner  and  condemned  me  for  pleading  in  his 
behalf.  He  is  a  convict,  a  pauper,  a  negro,  without  intellect, 
sense,  or  emotion.  My  child  with  an  affectionate  smile  dis- 
arms my  care-worn  face  of  its  frown  whenever  I  cross  my 
threshold.  The  beggar  in  the  street  obliges  me  to  give  be- 
cause he  says  'God  bless  you!'  as  I  pass.  My  dog  caresses  me 
with  fondness  if  I  will  but  smile  on  him.  My  horse  recog- 
nizes me  when  I  fill  his  manger.  What  reward,  what  grat- 
itude, what  smypathy  and  affection  can  I  expect  here?  There 
the  prisoner  sits.  Look  at  him.  Look  at  the  assemblage 
around  you.  Listen  to  their  ill-suppressed  censure  and  their 
excited  fears,  and  tell  me  where  among  my  neighbors  or  my 
fellow-men,  where,  even  in  his  heart,  I  can  even  expect  to  find 
a  sentiment,  a  thought,  not  to  say  of  reward  or  of  acknow- 
ledgment, or  even  of  recognition?  Gentlemen,  you  may 
think  of  this  evidence  what  you  please,  bring  in  what  verdict 
you  can,  but  I  asseverate  before  heaven  and  you  that,  to  the 
best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  does 
not  at  this  time  know  why  it  is  that  my  shadow  falls  on  you 
instead  of  his  own." 

The  gallows  got  its  victim,  but  the  postmortem  examination 
of  the  poor  creature  showed  to  all  the  surgeons  and  to  all 
the  world  that  the  public  was  wrong,  that  William  H.  Seward 
was  right,  and  that  hard,  stormy  step  of  obloquy  in  the  Au- 
burn court-room  was  the  first  step  of  the  stairs  of  fame  up 
which  he  went  to  the  top,  or  to  within  one  step  of  the  top, 
that  last  denied  him  through  the  treachery  of  American  pol- 
itics. Nothing  sublimer  was  ever  seen  in  an  American  court- 
room than  William  H.  Seward,  without  reward,  standing  be- 
tween the  fury  of  the  populace  and  the  loathsome  imbecile. 
A  noble  example  of  that  exalted  principle  which  leads  one  to 
suffer  for  another. 


L.    B.   ELLIS.  335 

UNITED  STATES  IN  CUBA. 

L.   B.   ELLIS. 
(In  the  Arena  for  July,  1900.) 

"Are  the  Cuban  municipalities  self-supporting  since  the 
war?"  is  a  question  I  often  hear.  In  the  broadest  sense,  yes. 
For  municipalities  are  everything  here,  corresponding  more 
nearly  to  our  townships.  But  municipal  organization  in  the 
island  is  clumsy  and  cumbersome,  and  already  in  Havana 
they  are  trying  to  formulate  something  simpler  and  more  ef- 
fective. 

Other  reforms  are  drifting  to  these  people.  For  us  to  try 
to  hasten  some  of  them  arbitrarily  would  only  retard  them. 
Foremost  in  this  class  may  be  counted  the  transfer  tax,  the 
census  or  ninety-nine-year  tax,  and  the  land  tax.  The  last 
arrests  the  attention.  Think  of  a  country  that  reverses  Henry 
George's  "ground  principle"  and  taxes  land  only  when  under 
cultivation,  thereby  putting  a  certain  premium  upon  idle- 
ness! But  the  Cubans  are  not  ready  to  accept  a  reversal  of 
this  unjust  statute  at  the  hands  of  their  benefactors.  There 
are  too  many  circumstances  that  make  them  suspicious  of  a 
reform  so  radical.  Yet  could  this  be  done  at  once,  and  with 
their  full  acceptance  in  spirit,  they  would  be  much  closer  to 
that  industrial  revival  which  must  precede  prosperity. 

Some  reforms  in  the  judiciary  have  been  necessary  from  the 
first  days  of  our  administration,  but  they  have  not  been  easy 
of  accomplishment.  There  intervened  the  inevitable  and  al- 
most daily  conflict  between  the  civil  and  military  processes 
of  law.  General  Wood  has  already  done  much  to  obviate 
this,  stimulating  the  civil  procedure  and  narrowing  the  reach 
of  military  jurisdiction.  By  such  a  policy  he  has  won  the 
confidence  of  the  islanders  to  a  remarkable  extent,  increas- 
ing their  admiring  affection  also  by  employing  Cubans  in 
every  position  possible,  even  in  his  own  office  and  about  his 
person.  It  should  be  remarked  that  this  has  been  done  very 
persistently  by  all  officials  and  in  every  department  of  the 
United  States'  Cuban  government. 

The  lately  appointed  law  reform  commission  has  not  yet 
completed  its  task,  but  it  is  well  understood  that  its  most 


336  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

radical  innovations  will  be  the  establishment  of  police  cor- 
rectional courts,  presided  over  by  salaried  judges,  and  the 
acceleration  of  judicial  processes  so  that  justice  in  both  civil 
and  criminal  cases  may  be  meted  out  with  less  delay  than 
under  the  old  dragging  system  instituted  by  Spain. 


EMMETT'S  DEFENSE. 


ROBERT  EMMBTT. 

What  have  I  to  say  why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be 
pronounced  against  me  according  to  law?  I  have  nothing  to 
say  which  can  alter  your  predetermination,  nor  that  it  will 
become  me  to  say  with  any  view  to  the  mitigation  of  that 
sentence  which  you  are  here  to  pronounce,  and  by  which  I 
must  abide.  But  I  have  that  to  say  which  interests  me  more 
than  life.  I  have  much  to  say  why  my  reputation  should  be 
rescued  from  the  load  of  calumny  and  false  accusation  which 
have  been  heaped  upon  it. 

Were  I  only  to  suffer  death  after  being  adjudged  guilty  by 
your  tribunal  I  should  bow  in  silence  and  meet  the  fate  that 
awaits  me  without  a  murmur;  but  the  sentence  of  the  law 
which  delivers  my  body  to  the  executioner  will  through  the 
ministry  of  that  law  labor  in  its  own  vindication  to  consign 
my  character  to  obloquy.  The  man  dies,  but  his  memory 
lives.  That  mine  may  live  in  the  hearts  and  in  the  respect 
of  my  countrymen,  I  seize  upon  this  opportunity  to  vindicate 
myself  from  some  of  the  charges  alleged  against  me. 

When  my  spirit  shall  be  wafted  to  a  more  friendly  port, 
when  my  shade  shall  have  joined  the  bands  of  those  mar- 
tyred heroes  who  have  shed  their  blood  on  the  scaffold  and 
in  the  field,  in  defense  of  their  country  and  virtue — this  is 
my  hope:  I  wish  that  my  memory  and  name  may  animate 
those  who  survive  me  while  I  look  down  complacently  on 
the  destruction  of  that  perfidious  government  which  upholds 
its  domination  by  the  blasphemy  of  the  Most  High;  which 
displays  its  power  over  men  as  over  beasts  of  the  forest; 
which  sets  man  against  his  brother  and  raises  his  hand  in 


ROBERT   EMMETT.  337 

the  name  of  God  against  the  throat  of  his  fellow  who  be- 
lieves or  doubts  a  little  more  or  a  little  less  than  the  govern- 
ment standard,  a  government  steeled  to  barbarity  by  the 
cries  of  orphans  and  the  tears  of  widows  it  has  made. 

Let  no  man  dare  when  1  am  dead  to  charge  me  with  dis- 
honor. Let  no  man  attaint  my  memory  by  believing  that  I 
could  engage  in  any  cause  but  of  my  country's  liberty  and  in- 
dependence. In  the  dignity  of  freedom,  I  would  have  fought 
on  the  threshold  of  my  country,  and  its  enemy  could  have  en- 
tered only  by  passing  over  my  lifeless  corpse.  And  now,  am 
I  who  lived  but  for  my  country  and  who  have  subjected  my- 
self to  the  dangers  of  a  jealous  and  watchful  oppressor  and 
the  bondage  of  the  grave — am  I  to  be  loaded  with  calumny 
and  not  suffered  to  resent  or  repel  it?  No,  God  forbid! 

My  lords,  you  are  impatient  for  the  sacrifice.  The  blood 
for  which  you  thirst  is  not  congealed  by  those  artificial  ter- 
rors that  surround  your  victim,  but  flows  freely  and  unruffled 
through  the  channels  which  God  created  for  nobler  pur- 
poses, and  which  you  are  now  bent  to  destroy.  Be  yet  pa- 
tient; I  have  but  a  few  more  words  to  say.  I  am  going  to 
my  cold  and  silent  grave;  my  lamp  of  life  is  almost  exting- 
uished; my  race  is  run.  The  grave  opens  to  receive  me  and 
I  sink  into  its  bosom.  *******i  have  but  one 
request  to  make  at  my  departure  from  this  world.  It  is  the 
charity  of  its  silence.  Let  no  man  write  my  epitaph,  for,  as 
no  man  who  knows  my  motives  dares  now  vindicate  them, 
let  not  prejudice  nor  ignorance  espouse  them.  Let  them  and 
me  rest  in  obscurity  and  peace,  and  my  tomb  uninscribed 
until  other  times  and  other  men  can  do  justice  to  .my  charac- 
ter. When  my  country  takes  her  place  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  then,  and  not  till  then,  let  my  epitaph  be 
written. 


338  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

THE  IRON  WILL  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON. 


(Adapted.) 

Both  friends  and  foes  have  bestowed  on  Andrew  Jackson 
the  characteristic  of  being  a  man  of  iron  will.  When  this 
is  meant  to  imply  hardness  of  heart,  nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  truth,  but  when  it  means  that  his  sense  of  duty  was 
strong,  and  stronger  even  than  his  feelings,  the  term  may  not 
have  been  misapplied. 

His  iron  will  was  mere  firmness  or  inflexibility  in  the  cause 
he  deemed  right.  It  was  an  indomitable  resolution  to  carry 
out  what  conscience  dictated.  Judgment  and  the  fruits  of 
it,  opinion  and  corresponding  conduct,  it  seemed  to  him, 
ought  to  be  inseparable.  He  knew  of  no  compromise  or  half- 
way measures  with  what  was  wrong. 

This  high  moral  tone,  though  often  imputed  to  him  as  a 
fault,  was  in  fact  the  crowning  glory  of  his  character, 
whether  as  a  man,  a  warrior  or  a  politician.  So  far  as 
its  having  proved  inconsistent  with  seeking  full  advice,  and 
weighing  contradictory  reasons,  and  adopting  measures  of 
conciliation,  where  justifiable  and  wise,  it  was  generally  pre- 
ceded by  the  amplest  inquiries  and  careful  deliberation.  But 
a  conclusion  having  been  once  formed,  his  mind  and  heart 
were  flung  into  its  execution  with  almost  resistless  energy, 
and  then  in  fortitude  to  resist  opposition,  and  in  courage  to 
brave  all  difficulties,  and  inflexible  perseverance  to  carry  out 
measures  deemed  right,  he  may  well  have  been  called  a  man 
of  iron,  a  man  of  destiny,  or  the  hero  of  the  iron  will. 


AGAINST  WHIPPING  IN  THE  NAVY. 


(Adapted.> 

I  love  the  navy.  When  I  speak  of  the  navy,  I  mean  the 
sailor  as  well  as  the  officer.  They  are  all  my  fellow  citizens 
and  yours,  and  come  what  may,  my  voice  will  ever  be  raised 
against  a  punishment  which  degrades  my  countrymen  to  the 
level  of  brutes,  and  destroys  all  that  is  worth  living  for — per- 
sonal honor  and  self-respect.  In  many  a  bloody  conflict  has 
the  superiority  of  American  sailors  decided  the  battle  in  our 


AGAINST   WHIPPING   IN   THE   NAVY.  339 

favor.  I  desire  to  secure  and  preserve  that  superiority.  But 
can  nobleness  of  sentiment  or  honorable  pride  of  character 
dwell  with  one  whose  every  muscle  has  been  made  to  quiver 
under  the  lash?  Can  he  longer  continue  to  love  a  country 
whose  laws  crush  out  all  the  dignity  of  manhood,  and  rouse 
all  the  exasperation  of  hate  in  his  breast? 

Look  to  your  history,  that  part  which  the  world  knows  by 
heart,  and  you  will  find  on  its  brightest  page  the  glorious 
achievements  of  the  American  sailor.  Whatever  his  country 
has  done  to  disgrace  and  break  his  spirit,  he  never  has  dis- 
graced her.  Man  for  man,  he  asks  no  odds  when  the  cause 
of  humanity  or  the  glory  of  his  country  calls  him  to  fight. 
Who,  in  the  darkest  days  of  our  Revolution,  carried  your 
flag  into  the  very  chops  of  the  British  Channel,  bearded  the 
lion  in  his  den,  and  awoke  the  echo  of  old  Albion's  hills  bv 
the  thunder  of  his  cannon  and  the  shouts  of  his  triumph? 
It  was  the  American  sailor,  and  the  names  of  John  Paul 
Jones  and  the  "Bon  Homme  Richard"  will  go  down  the  an- 
nals of  time  forever.  Who  struck  the  first  blow  that  humbled 
the  Barbary  bag,  which  for  a  hundred  years  had  been  the 
terror  of  Christendom,  drove  it  from  the  Mediterranean  and 
put  an  end  to  the  infamous  tribute  it  had  been  accustomed 
to  exact?  It  was  the  American  sailor,  and  the  names  of 
Decatur  and  his  gallant  companions  will  be  as  lasting  as 
monumental  brass. 

In  the  war  of  1812,  when  your  arms  on  shore  were  covered 
with  disaster,  when  Winchester  had  been  defeated,  when  the 
army  of  the  Northwest  had  surrendered,  when  the  gloom  of 
despondency  hung  like  a  cloud  over  the  land,  who  first  relit 
the  fires  of  national  glory  and  made  the  welking  ring  with 
shouts  of  victory?  It  was  the  American  sailor,  and  the  names 
of  Hull  and  the  "Constitution"  will  be  remembered  as  long 
as  we  have  a  country  to  love.  That  one  event  was  worth 
more  to  the  country  than  all  the  money  which  has  ever  been 
expended  for  a  navy.  Who  was  it  that  only  a  few  days  ago 
carried  his  gallant  ships  right  into  the  jaws  of  the  enemy— 
the  haughty  "Dons"—  and  annihilated  their  entire  fleet  with- 
out losing  a  single  man?  It  was  the  American  sailor,  known 
in  modern  history  as  Admiral  Dewey.  The  American  sailor 
has  established  a  reputation  throughout  the  world  for  a  hero- 
ism and  prowess  unsurpassed. 


34Q  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


JURY  PLEA. 

SERGEANT   S.   PRENTISS. 
(See    "Great   Speeches   by   Great  Lawyers,"    p.   85.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  this  is  a  case  of  no  ordinary  char- 
acter, and  possesses  no  ordinary  interest.  Three  of  the  most 
respectable  citizens  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  stand  before 
you  indicted  for  the  crime  of  murder,  the  highest  offense 
known  to  the  laws  of  the  land.  I  ask  for  these  defendants 
no  sympathy,  nor  do  they  wish  it.  I  ask  only  for  justice — 
such  justice  as  you  would  demand  if  you  occupied  their  sit- 
uation and  they  yours. 

The  ground  of  their  defense  is  simple.  They  assert  that 
they  did  not  do  the  act  voluntarily  or  maliciously;  that  they 
committed  it  from  stern  and  imperative  necessity;  from  the 
promptings  of  the  common  instinct  of  nature;  by  virtue  of 
the  broad  and  universal  law  of  self-defense;  and  they  deny 
that  they  violated  thereby  the  ordinances  of  God  or  man. 

The  principles  of  self-defense  do  not  require  that  action 
should  be  withheld  until  it  can  be  of  no  avail.  When  the 
rattlesnake  gives  warning-  of  his  fatal  purpose,  the  wary  trav- 
eler waits  not  for  the  poisonous  blow,  but  plants  upon  his 
head  his  armed  heel  and  crushes  out  at  once  his  venom  and 
his  strength.  When  the  hunter  hears  the  rustling  in  the 
jungle  and  beholds  the  large  green  eyes  of  the  spotted  tiger 
glaring  upon  him,  he  waits  not  for  the  deadly  spring,  but 
sends  at  once  through  the  brain  of  his  crouching  enemy  the 
swift  and  leaden  death.  If  war  was  declared  against  our 
country  by  an  insulting  foe,  would  you  wait  till  your  sleeping 
cities  were  awakened  by  the  terrible  music  of  the  bursting 
bomb?  till  your  green  fields  were  trampled  by  the  hoofs  of  the 
invader,  and  made  red  with  the  blood  of  your  brethren? 
No!  you  would  send  forth  fleets  and  armies;  you  would  un- 
loose upon  the  broad  ocean  your  keen  falcons;  and  the  thun- 
der of  your  guns  would  arouse  stern  echoes  along  the  hostile 
coast.  Yet,  this  would  be  national  defense  and  authorized  by 
the  same  principle  of  protection,  which  applies  no  less  to 
individuals  than  to  nations. 


SERGEANT  s.  PRENTISS.  341 

But  Judge  Wilkinson  had  no  right  to  interfere  in  defense 
of  his  brother!  so  says  the  commonwealth's  attorney.  Go, 
gentlemen,  and  ask  your  mothers  and  sisters  if  that  be  law. 
I  refer  you  to  no  musty  domes,  but  to  the  living  volumes 
of  nature.  What!  A  man  not  permitted  to  defend  his  brother 
against  conspirators,  against  assassins,  who  are  crushing  out 
the  very  life  of  their  bruised  and  powerless  victim.  WThy, 
he  who  would  govern  his  conduct  by  such  a  principle  does 
not  deserve  to  have  a  brother  or  a  friend.  To  fight  for  sell 
is  but  the  result  of  an  honest  instinct  which  we  have  with 
the  brutes.  To  defend  those  who  are  dear  to  us  is  the  high- 
est exercise  of  the  principle  of  self-defense.  It  nourishes  all 
the  noblest  social  qualities,  and  constitutes  the  very  germ  of 
patriotism  itself. 

Kentucky  has  no  law  which  precludes  a  man  from  defend- 
ing himself,  his  brother  or  his  friend.  Better  for  Judge 
Wilkinson  had  he  never  lived  than  he  should  have  failed  in 
his  duty  on  such  an  occasion.  Had  he  acted  otherwise  than 
he  did,  he  would  have  been  ruined  in  his  own  estimation 
and  blasted  in  the  opinions  of  the  world. 


THE  CORRUPTION  OF  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT. 

C.    H.    PARKHURST. 

Every  solid  statement  of  fact  is  argument.  Every  time 
you  deal  with  things  as  they  are,  and  name  them  in  honest, 
ringing  Saxon,  you  have  done  something.  It  has  always  been 
a  trump  card  in  the  devil's  game  to  keep  things  mixed.  He 
mixed  them  in  Paradise,  and  he  has  been  trying  to  keep 
them  mixed  ever  since.  If  the  powers  that  manage  this  town 
are  supremely  and  concertedly  bent  on  encouraging  iniquity 
in  order  to  the  strengthening  of  their  own  position,  and  the 
enlargement  of  their  own  capital,  what,  in  heaven's  name,  is 
the  use  of  disguising  the  fact  and  wrapping  it  up  in  am- 
biguous euphemisms? 

Something  like  a  year  ago,  in  company  with  a  number  of 
gentlemen,  I  conferred  in  his  office  with  the  highest  munici- 


342  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

pal  dignitary  of  this  city  in  regard  to  the  slovenly  and 
wicked  way  in  which  he  was  pretending  to  clean  our  streets. 
In  what  I  had  to  say  to  him  at  the  time  I  addressed  him  as 
though  he  were  a  man  and  as  though  he  had  the  supreme 
interests  of  the  city  at  heart:  and  I  have  been  ashamed  of 
myself  from  the  crown  of  my  head  to  the  soles  of  my  feet 
ever  since. 

Our  city,  in  its  municipal  life,  is  thoroughly  rotten.  Gam- 
bling houses  nourish  on  all  these  streets  almost  as  thick  as 
roses  in  Sharon.  They  are  open  to  the  initiated,  at  any  hour 
of  day  or  night.  They  are  eating  into  the  character  of  some 
of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  as  our  best  and  most 
promising  young  men.  They  are  a  constant  menace  to  all 
that  is  choicest  and  most  vigorous  in  a  moral  way  in  the 
generation  that  is  now  moving  on  to  the  field  of  action. 

If  we  try  to  close  up  a  gambling  house  we,  in  the  guileless- 
ness  of  our  innocent  imaginations,  might  have  supposed  that 
the  arm  of  the  city  government  that  takes  cognizance  of 
such  matters  would  find  no  service  so  congenial  as  that  of 
combining  with  well  intended  citizens  in  turning  up  the 
light  on  these  nefarious  dens  and  giving  to  the  public  certi- 
fied lists  of  the  names  of  their  frequenters.  But  if  you  con- 
vict a  man  of  keeping  a  gambling  hell  in  this  town  you 
must  do  it  in  spite  of  the  authorities  and  not  by  their  aid. 

But  you  ask  me,  perhaps,  what  is  the  use  of  this  assevera- 
tion and  vituperation?  What  is  the  good  of  protesting? 
What  is  the  good  of  protesting?  Do  you  know  that  a  Protes- 
tant is  nothing  but  a  protestant — a  man  who  protests.  And 
did  not  the  men  who  protested  in  the  sixteenth  century  do  a 
good  deal?  Did  they  not  start  a  volcano  beneath  the  crust  of 
the  whole  European  civilization?  Wherever  you  have  a  Luther, 
a  grand  stick  of  human  timber,  all  a-fire  with  holy  indigna- 
tion, a  man  of  God,  who  is  not  too  lymphatic  to  get  off  his 
knees  or  too  cowardly  to  come  out  of  his  closet,  confront 
iniquity,  look  it  in  the  eye,  plaster  it  with  the  baptismal 
name,  such  a  man  can  start  a  reformation  or  revolution  every 
day  in  the  year  if  there  are  enough  of  them  to  go  around. 
Why,  it  makes  no  difference  how  thick  the  darkness  is,  a 
ray  of  light  will  cut  it 


C.    H.   PARKHURST.  343 

Reality  is  not  worn  out.  The  truth  is  not  knock-kneed. 
The  incisive  edge  of  bare-bladed  righteousness  will  still  cut, 
Only  it  has  got  to  be  righteousness  that  is  not  afraid  to  stand 
up,  move  in  the  midst  of  iniquity  and  shake  itself.  The 
humanly  incarcerated  principles  of  this  gospel  were  able  in 
three  centuries  to  change  the  complexion  of  the  whole  Roman 
Empire;  and  there  is  nothing  the  matter  with  the  Christian- 
ity here,  except  that  the  incarnations  of  it  are  lazy  and  cow- 
ardly, and  think  more  of  their  personal  comfort  than  they 
do  of  municipal  decency,  and  more  of  their  dollars  than  they 
do  of  a  city  that  is  governed  by  men  who  are  not  tricky  and 
beastly. 

I  have  meant  to  be  unprejudiced  in  my  position  and  con- 
servative in  my  demands,  but  we  have  got  to  have  a  better 
world  and  we  have  got  to  have  a  better  city  than  this  is; 
and  men  who  feel  iniquity  keenly  and  who  are  not  afraid  to 
stand  up  and  hammer  it  unflinchingly  and  remorselessly,  and 
never  get  tired  of  hammering  it,  are'  the  instruments  God 
has  always  used  to  the  defeat  of  Satan  and  the  bringing  in  or 
a  better  day. 


THE  SUNDAY  NEWSPAPER. 


HERRICK  JOHNSON. 

What  is  the  Sunday  newspaper?  Let  us  be  honest.  It  is 
not  the  newspaper  in  partnership  with  Sunday,  to  promote 
mutual  interests  and  share  the  profits.  The  only  mutual  in- 
terests that  are  promoted  are  those  represented  by  the  maxim 
of  the  boy  in  tossing  up  the  penny,  "Head,  I  win;  tails,  you 
lose."  The  profits  all  go  to  the  newspaper,  and  Sunday 
stands  all  the  losses. 

The  Sunday  paper  is  simply  the  daily  paper  thrust  into 
Sunday.  When  the  newspaper  first  appeared  on  Sunday  it 
changed  its  clothes  a  little.  It  was  padded  with  pious  homily, 
as  they  pad  the  sacred  concerts  with  "Sweet  By  and  By," 
and  the  Doxology  in  long  meter;  but  the  wolf  soon  got  tired 


344  MODERN  AMERICAN  SPEAKER, 

of  trying  to  look  like  a  sheep,  and  now  the  wolf  enters  Sun- 
day with  scarcely  a  bit  of  the  woolly  fleece  left  that  he  put 
on  when  he  was  keeping  up  appearances.  It  is  a  vast  blanket 
of  information.  Some  of  it — a  great  deal  of  it — not  inherently 
unwholesome;  but  all  of  it  secular,  worldly,  of  the  earth, 
earthly;  and  some  of  it,  very  often  a  great  deal  of  it,  per- 
nicious and  unclean. 

Why  is  it  here?  Some  say,  "Because  the  people  wanted 
it."  This  is  a  free  country,  and  I  would  be  behind  no  one  in 
defense  of-  personal  liberty  and  the  rights  of  the  people.  But 
let  that  doctrine  be  pressed,  push  it  far  enough,  let  it  once 
be  understood,  that  what  the  people  want  the  people  must 
have,  and  we  have  begun  to  play  sad  havoc  with  our  morals. 
I  suppose  the  people  out  in  Utah  wanted  polygamy;  they 
would  vote  for  it  to-day,  by  a  rousing  majority,  but  the  gov- 
ernment does  not  intend  to  let  them  have  it.  Down  South 
they  wanted  slavery,  and,  alas!  the  government  was  disposed 
to  foster  it,  compromise  with  it;  but  in  the  thunder  of  our 
civil  war  God  said,  "Let  my  people  go."  The  anarchists  of 
Haymarket  Square,  Chicago,  wanted  a  larger  liberty;  but 
American  justice  took  anarchy  by  the  throat  and  hanged  it  by 
the  neck  till  it  was  dead,  and  buried  it  out  of  sight.  Clearly, 
what  the  people  want  is  not  always  best  that  the  people 
should  have. 

Again,  it  is  pleaded  that  it  is  a  necessity  of  our  times.  But 
there  is  Toronto,  a  city  of  no  mean  repute.  It  has  no  Sunday 
newspaper.  "Yes,"  say  New  York  and  Chicago,  "but  Toronto 
is  rural,  a  slow  coach,  a  country  town,  hardly  in  touch  with 
the  times.  No  Sunday  paper  may  do  for  Toronto,  but  it 
won't  do  for  a  city  astir  with  modern  enterprise  and  vast 
population.  Well,  there  is  London.  London  is  large  enough, 
is  it  not?  London  is  enterprising  enough,  is  it  not?  It  is 
five  or  six  times  as  large  as  Chicago,  and  two  or  three  times 
as  large  as  New  York.  Yet,  London  has  no  Sunday  news- 
paper. Don't  you  see  that  the  plea  of  necessity  is  simply 
an  absurdity?  The  Sunday  newspaper  is  here  simply  for 
the  money  there  is  in  it. 

But  is  there  no  religious  reading  in  these  Sunday  papers? 
Oh,  yes!  Here  are  the  bits  of  lamb-like  fleece,  by  exact 
mathematical  measurement,  furnished  on  a  certain  Sunday: 


HERRICK  JOHNSON.  345 

The  New  York  Tribune  published  eighty-one  columns  of  po- 
litical, special,  sensational,  criminal,  and  gossipy  matter,  and 
three-fourths  of  a  column  devoted  to  religion;  the  New  York 
Herald,  eighty-four  columns,  with  three-fourths  of  a  column 
devoted  to  religion;  the  New  York  World,  ninety  columns, 
with  half  a  column  devoted  to  religion;  the  New  York  Sun, 
ninety-seven  columns,  with  one  and  three-eighths  columns 
devoted  to  religion;  the  New  York  Times,  sixty-eight  col- 
umns, with  one-eighth  of  a  column  devoted  to  religion.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  imagine  what  possible  effect  that  little 
homeopathic  pill  of  "sweetness  and  light"  could  possibly  have 
alongside  that  vast  dose  of  crime,  worldliness,  and  sensation- 
alism. 

Oh,  for  a  breath  of  the  old  Puritan!  Doubtless  he  often 
looked  as  if  all  hope  had  been  washed  out  of  his  face.  I 
believe  his  Sabbath  was  a<  little  too  grim.  But  what  men 
it  made!  Men  of  the  martyr  spirit,  men  of  heroic  mould. 
Men  of  the  stuff  that  is  food  for  the  stake  and  the  rack. 
You  could  trust  them,  lean  on  them,  depend  on  them.  They 
were  great  fearers  of  God,  but  they  feared  neither  man  nor 
the  devil. 


346  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

DUTY  OF  LITERARY  HEN  TO  AMERICA. 


GRIMKE. 

We  cannot  honor  our  country  with  too  deep  a  reverence;  we 
cannot  love  her  with  an  affection  too  pure  and  fervent;  we 
cannot  serve  her  with  an  energy  of  purpose  or  a  faithfulness 
of  zeal  too  steadfast  and  ardent.  And  what  is  our  country? 
It  is  not  the  East,  with  her  hills  and  her  valleys,  with  her 
countless  sails  and  the  rocky  ramparts  of  her  shores.  It  is 
not  the  North,  with  her  thousand  villages  and  her  harvest- 
home,  with  her  frontiers  of  the  lake  and  the  ocean.  It  is  not 
the  West,  with  her  forest-sea  and  her  inland  isles,  with  her 
luxuriant  expanses  clothed  in  the  verdant  corn,  with  her 
beautiful  Ohio  and  her  majestic  Missouri.  Nor  is  it  yet  the 
South,  opulent  in  the  mimic  snow  of  the  cotton,  in  the  rich 
plantations  of  the  rustling  cane,  and  in  the  golden  robes  of 
the  rice-field.  What  are  these  but  the  sister  families  of  one 
greater,  holier  family,  our  country? 

I  come  not  here  to  speak  the  dialect  or  to  give  the  counsels 
of  the  patriot  statesmen,  but  I  come  a  patriot  scholar,  to 
vindicate  the  rights  and  to  plead  for  the  interests  of  Amer- 
ican literature.  And  be  assured  that  we  cannot,  as  patriot 
scholars,  think  too  highly  of  that  country  or  sacrifice  too 
much  for  her.  And  let  us  never  forget,  let  us  rather  remem- 
ber with  a  religious  awe,  that  the  union  of  these  states  is 
indispensable  to  our  literature  as  it  is  to  our  national  inde- 
pendence and  our  civil  liberties,  to  our  prosperity,  happiness 
and  improvement.  If,  indeed,  we  desire  to  behold  a  litera- 
ture like  that,  which  has  sculptured  with  such  energy  of 
expression,  which  has  pointed  so  faithfully  and  vividly  the 
crimes,  the  vices,  the  follies  of  ancient  and  modern  Europe; 
if  we  desire  that  our  land  should  furnish  for  the  orator  and 
the  novelist,  for  the  painter  and  the  poet,  age  after  age,  the 
wild  and  romantic  scenery  of  war;  the  glittering  march  of 
armies  and  the  revelry  of  the  camp,  the  shrieks  and  blas- 
phemies, and  all  the  horrors  of  the  battle-field;  the  desola- 
tion of  the  harvest  and  the  burning  cottage;  the  storm  of 
the  sack  and  the  ruin  of  cities;  if  we  desire  to  unchain  the 


GRIMKE,  347 

furious  passions  of  jealousy  and  selfishness,  of  hatred,  re- 
venge and  ambition,  those  lions  that  now  sleep  harmless  in 
their  den;  if  we  desire  that  the  lake,  the  river,  the  ocean, 
should  blush  with  the  blood  of  brothers;  that  the  wind 
should  waft  from  the  land  to  the  sea,  from  the  sea  to  the 
land,  the  roar  and  the  smoke  of  battle;  that  the  very  mountain 
tops  should  become  the  altars  for  the  sacrifice  of  brothers;  if 
we  desire  that  these  and  such  as  these — the  elements  to  an 
incredible  extent  of  the  literature  of  the  world — should  be 
the  elements  of  our  literature,  then,  but  then  only,  let  us 
hurl  from  its  pedestal  the  majestic  statue  of  our  union,  and 
scatter  its  fragments  over  all  our  land.  But  if  we  covet  for 
our  country  the  noblest,  purest,  loveliest  literature  the  world 
has  ever  seen,  such  a  literature  as  shall  honor  God  and  bless 
mankind;  a  literature  whose  smiles  might  play  upon  angel's 
face,  whose  tears  "would  not  stain  an  angel's  cheek;"  then 
let  us  cling  to  the  union  of  these  states  with  a  patriot's  love, 
with  a  scholar's  enthusiasm,  with  a  Christian's  hope.  On 
her  heavenly  character  as  a  holocaust  self-sacrifice  to  God; 
at  the  height  of  her  glory  as  the  ornament  of  a  free,  edu- 
cated, peaceful,  Christian  people;  American  literature  will 
find  that  the  intellectual  spirit  is  her  very  tree  of  life,  and 
that  union  her  Garden  .pf  Paradise. 


348  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


ENTHUSIASM." 


A.   HARRINGTON. 

If  there  be  one  want  of  the  time  imperious  beyond  an- 
other, it  is  that  of  earnest  men.  Literature  has  had  full 
enough  parasites  and  charlatans.  The  church  wants  men — 
men  as  ardent  for  duty  as  Alexander  for  glory — in  whose 
sight  the  games  and  gauds  of  the  earth  vanish  before  the 
cause  of  truth  like  vapours  before  the  rising  sun.  The  state, 
too,  can  ill  afford  to  substitute  officials,  partisans  and  dema- 
gogues, for  patriots.  It  wants  men  with  the  ability  to  see 
and  the  enthusiasm  to  feel  that  policy  is  duty.  It  wants  men 
who,  sinking  all  selfish  and  sectional  interests  in  an  all- 
absorbing  love  of  country,  boldly  venture  position,  fortune, 
life  if  need  be,  to  compass  an  object  dearer  than  self;  who 
on  this  country's  altars,  swear  eternal  enmity  to  all  who 
dare  menace  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  or  trifle  with  the  con- 
stitutional rights  of  any  section. 

Examine  the  muster-roll  of  Genius,  trace  the  progress  of 
revolutions  and  reformations  through  the  eras  of  history,  and 
you  will  learn  the  power  of  true  enthusiasm  to  beautify  and 
better  man's  condition.  .  Heroes,  martyrs,  the  mighty  dead 
heard,  and  the  mighty  living  hear  its  notes  and  march  to  its 
inspiring  music. 

Without  enthusiasm  to  vitalize  their  souls,  the  good  never 
become  ruling  public  spirits.  With  enthusiasm  the  bad  wield 
a  terrible  power.  Cortez  and  Pizarro  stand  out  in  the  rec- 
ords of  infamy  as  notable  examples.  Cortez  was  unrivaled 
in  enthusiasm  and  unequaled  in  prudence;  Loyala  was  at 
once  the  most  delirious  enthusiast,  and  a  man  of  profound- 
est  sagacity;  and  qualities  such  as  these  wield  the  sceptre 
over  the  generations  of  men.  Syllogisms  will  not  check  such 
men;  they  must  be  overthrown  by  superior  intensity  of  will, 
directed  by  moral  purpose — by  Luthers  and  Washingtons. 

Every  noble  instinct  of  humanity  condemns  a  selfish  apathy 
in  human  affairs.  Only  mean  spirits  will  remain  listless, 
while  the  world  within  and  the  world  without  continue  their 
manifold  pleadings  for  enthusiasm  of  life. 


A.    HARRINGTON.  349 

Poet,  orator,  statesman,  reformer,  be  sincere,  be  earnest, 
be  true;  for  such  the  world  has  honors— humanity  its  believ- 
ers— heaven  its  immortality!  Act,  then,  as  best  you  can,  and 
you  shall  not  be  of  that  number — 

"Who  fast-rooted  to  their  native  spot, 
In  life  are  useless,  and  in  death  forgot." 


PRESERVATION  OF  FORESTS. 


(Adapted.) 

James  Lane  Allen,  sitting  before  an  open  fire,  and  watch- 
ing, with  sympathetic  thoughtfulness,  the  burning  of  an  old 
oak  log,  said: 

"How  much  we  are  wasting  when  we  change  this  old  oak 
back  into  his  elements — smoke  and  light,  heat  and  ashes. 
What  a  magnificent  work  he  was  on  natural  history,  requir- 
ing hundreds  of  years  for  his  preparation  and  completion, 
written  in  a  language  so  learned  that  not  the  wisest  can 
read  him  wisely,  and  enduringly  bound  in  the  finest  of  tree- 
calf.  It  is  a  dishonor  to  speak  of  him  as  a  work.  He  was 
a  doctor  of  philosophy!  He  should  have  been  a  college 
professor!  Think  how  he  could  have  used  his  own  feet  for 
a  series  of  lectures  on  the  laws  of  equilibrium,  capillary  at- 
traction, or  soils  and  moisture!  Was  there  ever  a  head  that 
knew  as  much  as  his  about  the  action  of  light?  Did  any 
human  being  ever  more  grandly  bear  the  burden  of  life  or 
better  face  the  tempests  of  the  world?  What  did  he  not 
know  about  birds?  He  had  carried  them  in  his  arms  and 
nurtured  them  in  his  bosom  for  a  thousand  years.  Even  his 
old  coat,  with  all  its  rents  and  patches — what  roll  of  papyrus 
was  ever  so  crowded  with  the  secrets  of  knowledge?  The 
august  antiquarian!  The  old  king!  Can  you  imagine  a 
funeral  bier  too  noble  for  his  ashes?  He  will  not  keep  the 
wind  away  any  longer;  we  shall  change  him  into  a  kettle  of 
lye  with  which  to  whiten  our  floors." 


350  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

Cornell  University,  appreciating  the  harmful  effect  of  the 
rapid  disappearance  of  our  forests  and  the  wholesale  de- 
struction of  trees,  has  opened  a  new  course  to  its  students, 
known  as  a  "Course  in  Forestry."  It  is  the  only  college 
in  the  United  States  that  is  giving  scientific  attention  to  a 
matter  that  so  deeply  concerns  the  welfare  of  our  people. 

Aside  from  the  immediate  commercial  effect  of  the  lessen- 
ing of  timber  production  is  the  no  less  important  result  of 
the  change  in  climatic  conditions  produced  by  a  small  forest 
area.  Cornell  has  30,000  acres  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains 
secured  as  a  forest  reserve.  Over  one  million  small  trees  of 
different  varieties  have  been  planted  on  this  land.  The 
study  of  their  growth  will  give  students  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  the  trees  best  fitted  to  varied  conditions  of  soil,  ex- 
posure, moisture  and  the  like.  There  is  surprisingly  little 
general  knowledge  on  this  subject.  It  has  been  truly  said 
that  he  who  plants  a  tree  plants  a  hope.  Many  more  trees 
would  be  planted  if  people  understood  the  variety  of  tree 
best  suited  to  certain  soils  and  conditions. 

One  of  the  most  pleasing  features  of  European  countries  is 
the  excellent  system  of  roads  bordered  by  miles  and  miles 
of  trees.  With  proper  stimulation  of  interest  in  tree-plant- 
ing and  culture  we  might  easily  rival  the  great  roadways  of 
Europe  as  far  as  beauty  is  concerned.  The  study  of  tree 
growth  and  structure  in  the  schools  cannot  fail  to  awaken  an 
intelligent  interest  in  these  monarchs  of  the  forest.  Any 
and  all  means  that  awaken  a  desire  to  save  our  forests  and 
beautify  our  country  should  be  earnestly  commended  and  en- 
couraged. The  people  have  too  long  looked  at  trees  through 
eyes  trained  to  see  "lumber"  and  that  only. 


JOHN  D.   WRIGHT.  351 

THE  ORATOR'S  CAUSE. 


JOHN  D.  WRIGHT. 

It  is  the  popular  cry  now  that,  in  America,  the  age  of 
orators  has  passed.  I  tell  you  that  there  is  enough  true  elo- 
quence running  latent  in  business  and  professional  channels 
to  shake  this  mighty  nation  to  its  very  roots. 

I  rejoice  at  this  seeming  lack  of  orators.  It  is  the  most 
flattering  sign  of  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  these  United 
States.  Look  over  the  world  to-day,  or  look  into  history, 
and  tell  me  at  what  periods  nations  have  been  renowned  for 
their  orators.  Is  it  when  their  course  was  one  of  peaceful 
prosperity?  Far  from  it!  In  our  own  land  it  was  the  days 
of  the  Revolution,  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle,  and  of  the 
great  war  that  freed  the  bondsmen.  Why  are  the  Irish  a 
race  of  orators?  It  is  a  pitiful  answer.  Because  for  cen- 
turies there  have  been  tyranny  and  oppression  goading  them 
on  to  desperate  protests,  forcing  them  to  plead,  and  compelling 
them  to  threaten.  Because  this  tyranny  has  left  no  place 
for  him  to  speak  who  does  not  utterly  forget  himself,  and 
thus  become  the  living  mouthpiece  of  the  men  and  principles 
that  he  represents. 

But  never,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  elo- 
quence produced  more  marvelous  results  than  did  that  of  Mr. 
Beecher  in  his  brief  anti-slavery  campaign  in  England.  It 
was  a  question  of  Parliament  declaring  for  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  and  you  know  what  that  meant.  A  vast  multi- 
tude had  gathered  in  Philharmonic  Hall,  Liverpool,  where  Mr. 
Beecher  was  to  speak.  There  were  many  desperate  men 
there  that  night  who  were  determined  that  he  should  not  be 
heard.  Men  came  armed,  and  certain  bold  friends  of  the 
North,  going  into  the  boxes,  drew  their  revolvers  and  said: 
"The  man  who  shoots  here  first  shall  rue  it."  There  stood 
Mr.  Beecher,  perfectly  calm  and  self-possessed,  amid  this 
frightful  tumult.  He  had  been  told  that  his  life  was  in 
danger,  but  on  his  knees,  in  the  quiet  of  his  chamber,  he 
had  yielded  himself  absolutely  to  his  God  and  to  the  cause 
of  the  slave. 


352  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

For  an  hour  and  a  half  he  battled  with  that  vast  assembly. 
The  hissing  and  abuse  made  the  blood  course  through  his 
veins  like  molten  lead,  and  when  he  at  last  gained  control 
there  poured  forth  a  mighty  torrent  of  eloquence  that  swept 
all  before  it;  and  at  the  vote  the  "ayes"  came  out  like  the 
roaring  of  the  sea.  Was  it  the  man  who  conquered  that 
audience?  Yes;  but  the  eternal  principles  of  right,  justice 
and  equality  had  conquered  and  inspired  the  man.  There 
was  no  resisting  the  mighty  force  that  stood  behind  him. 
He  spoke  for  the  freedom  of  three  millions  of  slaves;  aye,  for 
the  freedom  of  the  world  from  the  bonds  which  stopped  its 
progress.  Mr.  Beecher  outdid  himself  that  night.  There  were 
depths  and  heights  in  his  nature  unsuspected  till  this  crisis 
revealed  them. 

Once  in  the  course  of  a  sermon,  he  told  the  story  of  a 
feudal  knight,  far  back  in  the  dark  ages,  who,  owning  two 
castles  on  opposite  sides  of  a  deep  gorge,  conceived  the  idea 
of  making  a  huge  Aeolian  harp  by  stretching  from  castle  to 
castle  great  wires.  He  did  so.  The  winds  came,  but  no 
music  broke  the  silence;  and  the  people  in  the  valley  laughed 
at  the  prince.  Years  passed.  At  length  one  night  there  arose 
a  mighty  tempest.  The  turrets  rocked  to  and  fro.  Desolation 
threatened,  but  as  the  terrible  blast  swept  over  the  great 
iron  wires  the  huge  harp  burst  forth  into  harmony,  and  far 
down  in  the  sheltered  valley  the  villagers  heard  the  wond- 
derful  melody,  and  thought  it  was  the  choir  of  heaven.  So 
that  night,  as  the  storm  of  hisses  and  yells  swept  over  the 
orator's  soul,  great  chords  were  set  vibrating  which  only  a 
tempest  could  move. 

And  so  it  is,  that  far  down  in  the  depths  of  a  man's 
nature  are  hidden  chords,  which  can  only  break  forth  into 
music  when  all  self  has  been  swept  away,  and  the  great 
rough  hand  of  some  momentous  crisis  is  drawn  harshly  over 
them, 


JOHN   M.   THURSTON.  353 

CUBA  AND  SPAIN. 


JOHN  M.   THURSTON. 
(In   the  U.   S.   Senate,  1898.) 

There  are  those  who  say  the  affairs  of  Cuba  are  not  the 
affairs  of  the  United  States,  who  insist  that  we  can  stand 
idly  by  and  see  that  island  devastated  and  depopulated,  its 
business  interests  destroyed,  its  commercial  intercourse  with 
us  cut  off,  its  people  starved,  degraded,  and  enslaved.  It  may 
be  the  naked,  legal  right  of  the  United  States  to  stand  thus 
idly  by.  I  have  the  right  to  pass  along  the  street  and  see  a 
helpless  dog  stamped  into  the  earth  under  the  heels  of  a 
ruffian.  I  can  pass  by  and  say  it  is  not  my  dog.  I  can  sit  in 
my  comfortable  parlor  with  my  loved  ones  gathered  about 
me,  and  through  my  plate-glass  window  see  a  friend  outraging 
a  helpless  woman  near  by,  and  I  can  legally  say  this  is  no 
affair  of  mine,  it  is  not  happening  on  my  premises.  But  if  I 
do,  I  am  a  coward  and  a  cur,  unfit  to  live,  and  God  knows 
unfit  to  die.  And  yet  I  cannot  protect  the  dog  nor  save  the 
woman  without  the  exercise  of  force.  We  cannot  intervene 
and  save  Cuba  without  the  exercise  of  force,  and  force  means 
war,  and  war  means  blood.  The  lowly  Nazarene  on  the 
shores  of  Galilee  preached  the  divine  doctrine  of  love,  "Peace 
on  earth,  good  will  toward  men."  No  peace  on  earth  at  the 
expense  of  liberty  and  humanity.  Not  good  will  toward  men 
who  despoil,  enslave,  degrade,  and  starve  to  death  their  fel- 
low men.  I  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  I  believe  in  the 
doctrine  of  peace,  but  men  must  have  liberty  before  there 
can  come  abiding  peace.  Intervention  meaib\  force.  Force 
means  war.  War  means  blood.  But  it  will  tsV  God's  force. 
When  has  a  battle  for  humanity  and  liberty  ev\*  been  won 
except  by  force?  What  barricade  of  wrong,  injustice  and 
oppression  has  ever  been  carried  except  by  force?  Force 
compelled  the  signature  of  unwilling  royalty  to  the  great 
Magna  Charta;  force  put  life  into  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  made  effective  the  emancipation  proclamation; 
force  beat  with  naked  hands  upon  the  iron  gateway  of  the 
Bastille  and  made  reprisal  in  one  awful  hour  for  centuries 


354  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

of  kingly  crime;  force  waved  the  flag  of  revolution  over 
Bunker  Hill  and  marked  the  snows  at  Valley  Forge  with 
blood-stained  feet;  force  held  the  broken  line  at  Shiloh, 
climbed  the  flame-swept  hill  at  Chattanooga,  and  stormed  the 
lands  on  Lookout  Heights;  force  marched  with  Sherman  to 
the  sea;  rode  with  Sheridan  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah, 
and  gave  Grant  victory  at  Appomattox;  force  saved  the 
Union;  kept  the  stars  in  the  flag;  made  "niggers"  men.  The 
time  for  God's  force  has  come  again.  Let  the  impassioned 
lips  of  American  patriots  once  more  take  up  the  song: 
In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea; 
With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigured  you  and  me; 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free; 

For  God  is  marching  on. 

Others  may  hesitate,  others  may  procrastinate,  others  may 
plead  for  further  diplomatic  negotiations,  which  means  delay; 
but  as  for  me,  I  am  ready  to  act  now;  and  for  my  action  I 
am  ready  to  answer  to  my  conscience,  my  country  and  my 
God. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  355 

AMERICAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER. 
(From  his  Bunker  Hill  Oration.) 

We  have  indulged  in  gratifying  recollections  of  the  past, 
in  the  prosperity  and  pleasures  of  the  present,  and  in  high 
hopes  for  the  future.  But  let  us  remember  that  we  have 
duties  and  obligations  to  perform  corresponding  to  the  bless- 
ings which  we  enjoy.  Let  us  remember  the  trust,  the  sacred 
trust,  attaching  to  the  rich  inheritance  which  we  have  re- 
ceived from  our  fathers.  Let  us  feel  our  personal  responsi- 
bility to  the  full  extent  of  our  power  and  influence,  for  the 
preservation  of  the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
And  let  us  remember  that  it  is  only  religion  and  morals,  and 
knowledge,  that  can  make  men  respectable  and  happy,  under 
any  form  of  government.  Let  us  hold  fast  the  great  truth, 
that  communities  are  responsible  as  well  as  individuals;  that 
no  government  is  respectable  which  is  not  just;  that  without 
unspotted  purity  of  public  faith,  without  sacred  public  prin- 
ciple, fidelity,  and  honor,  no  mere  forms  of  government,  no 
machinery  of  laws,  can  give  dignity  to  political  society.  In 
our  day  and  generation,  let  us  seek  to  raise  and  improve  the 
moral  sentiment,  so  that  we  may  look,  not  for  a  degraded, 
but  for  an  elevated  and  improved  future.  And  when  both 
we  and  our  children  shall  have  been  consigned  to  the  house 
appointed  for  all  living,  may  love  of  country,  and  pride  of 
country,  glow  with  equal  fervor  among  those  to  whom  our 
names  and  our  blood  shall  have  descended! 

And  then,  when  honored  and  decrepit'age  shall  lean  against 
the  base  of  this  monument,  and  troops  of  ingenuous  youth 
shall  be  gathered  around  it,  and  when  the  one  shall  speak  to 
the  other  of  its  objects,  the  purposes  of  its  construction, .  and 
the  great  and  glorious  events  with  which  it  is  connected, 
then  shall  rise  from  every  youthful  breast  the  ejaculation, 
"Thank  God,  I— I  also— am  an  American!" 


356  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

BURKE'S  IMPEACHMENT  OF  WARREN  HASTINGS. 


MACAULAY. 

The  place  was  worthy  of  such  a  trial.  It  was  the  great  hall 
of  William  Rufus,  the  hall  which  had  resounded  with  acclama- 
tions at  the  inauguration  of  thirty  kings,  the  hall  which  had 
witnessed  the  just  sentence  of  Bacon  and  the  just  absolution 
of  Somers,  the  hall  where  the  eloquence  of  Strafford  had  for 
a  moment  awed  and  melted  a  victorious  party  inflamed  with 
just  resentment,  the  hall  where  Charles  had  confronted  the 
high  court  of  justice  with  the  placid  courage  which  has  half 
redeemed  his  fame.  Neither  military  nor  civil  pomp  was 
wanting.  The  peers,  robed  in  gold  and  ermine,  were  mar- 
shalled under  Garter  King-at-arms.  The  judges,  in  their 
vestments  of  state,  attended  to  give  advice  on  points  of  law. 
There  were  gathered  together  from  all  parts  of  a  free,  en- 
lightened and  prosperous  empire,  grace  and  female  loveliness, 
wit  and  learning,  the  representatives  of  every  science  and  of 
every  art.  There  were  seated  round  the  Queen  the  fair- 
haired  young  daughters  of  the  house  of  Brunswick.  There 
the  ambassadors  of  great  Kings  and  Commonwealths  gazed 
with  admiration  on  a  spectacle  that  no  other  country  in  the 
world  could  present.  There  the  historian  thought  of  the 
days  when  Cicero  pleaded  the  cause  of  Sicily  against  Verres, 
and  when  before  a  Senate  that  still  retained  some  show  of 
freedom,  Tacitus  thundered  against  the  oppressor  of  Africa. 
There  were  seen,  side  by  side,  the  greatest  painters  and  the 
greatest  scholar  of  the  age.  And  there  the  ladies,  whose  lips 
more  persuasive  than  those  of  Fox  himself,  had  carried  the 
Westminster  election  against  palace  and  treasury,  shone  round 
Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire. 

The  sergeants  made  proclamation.  Hastings  advanced  to 
the  bar,  and  bent  his  knee.  The  culprit  was  indeed  not  un- 
worthy of  that  great  presence.  He  had  ruled  an  extensive  and 
populous  country,  had  made  laws  and  treaties,  had  sent  forth 
armies,  had  set  up  and  pulled  down  princes.  And  in  his  high 
place  he  had  so  borne  himself,  that  all  had  feared  him,  that 
most  had  loved  him,  and  that  hatred  itself  could  deny  him 
no  title  to  glory,  except  virtue. 


MACAULAY.  357 

The  charges  and  answers  of  Hastings  were  first  read.  This 
ceremony  occupied  two  whole  days.  On  the  third  day  Burke 
rose.  With  an  exuberance  of  thought  and  a  splendor  of  dic- 
tion that  more  than  satisfied  the  highly  raised  expectation  of 
the  audience,  he  described  the  character  and  institutions  of 
the  people  of  India,  recounted  the  circumstances  in  which 
the  Asiatic  empire  of  Britain  had  originated,  and  set  forth 
the  constitution  of  the  Company  and  the  English  presiden- 
cies. He  then  proceeded  to  arraign  the  administration  of 
Hastings  as  conducted  in  defiance  of  morality  and  public 
law.  The  energy  and  pathos  of  the  great  orator  extorted 
expressions  of  unwonted  admiration  from  the  stern  and  hos- 
tile Chancellor,  and,  for  a  moment,  seemed  to  pierce  the  reso- 
lute heart  of  the  defendant.  The  ladies  in  the  galleries,  un- 
accustomed'to  such  displays  of  eloquence,  excited  by  the  sol- 
emnity of  the  occasion,  were  in  a  state  of  uncontrollable 
emotion. 

At  length  the  orator  concluded.  Raising  his  voice  till  the 
old  arches  of  Irish  oak  resounded,  "Therefore,"  said  he,  "hath 
it  with  all  confidence  been  ordered  by  the  Commons  of  Great 
Britain,  that  I  impeach  Warren  Hastings  of  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors.  I  impeach  him  in  the  name  of  the  Com- 
mons' House  of  Parliament,  whose  trust  he  has  betrayed.  I 
impeach  him  in  the  name  of  the  English  nation,  whose  honor 
he  has  sullied.  I  impeach  him  in  the  name  of  the  people 
of  India,  whose  rights  he  has  trodden  under  foot  and  whose 
country  he  has  turned  into  a  desert.  Lastly,  in  the  name  of 
human  nature  itself,  in  the  name  of  both  sexes,  in  the  name 
of  every  age,  in  the  name  of  every  rank,  I  impeach  the  com- 
mon enemy  and  oppressor  of  all." 


358  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

DECISIVE  INTEGRITY. 


WILLIAM  WIRT. 

The  man  who  is  so  conscious  of  the  rectitude  of  his  inten- 
tions as  to  be  willing  to  open  his  bosom  to  the  inspection  of 
the  world,  is  in  possession  of  one  of  the  strongest  pillars  of  a 
decided  character.  The  course  of  such  a  man  will  be  firm 
and  steady,  because  he  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  world,  and 
is  sure  of  the  approbation  and  support  of  Heaven.  While 
he  who  is  conscious  of  secret  and  dark  designs,  which,  if 
known,  would  blast  him,  is  perpetually  shrinking  and  dodg- 
ing from  public  observation,  and  is  afraid  of  all  around, 
and  more  of  all  above  him. 

Such  a  man  may,  indeed,  pursue  his  iniquitous  plans  stead- 
ily; he  may  waste  himself  to  a  skeleton  in  the  guilty  pur- 
suit; but  it  is  impossible  that  he  can  pursue  them  with  the 
same  health-inspiring  confidence,  and  exulting  alacrity,  with 
him  who  feels,  at  every  step,  that  he  is  in  pursuit  of  honest 
ends  by  honest  means.  The  clear,  unclouded  brow,  the  open 
countenance,  the  brilliant  eye,  which  can  look  an  honest  man 
steadfastly,  yet  courteously,  in  the  face;  the  healthfully- 
beating  heart,  and  the  firm,  elastic  step,  belong  to  him  whose 
bosom  is  free  from  guile,  and  who  knows  that  all  his  motives 
and  purposes  are  pure  and  right.  Why  should  such  a  man 
falter  in  his  course?  He  may  be  slandered,  may  be  de- 
serted by  the  world;  but  he  has  that  within  which  will  keep 
him  erect,  and  enable  him  to  move  onward  in  his  course,  with 
his  eyes  fixed  on  Heaven,  which  he  knows  will  not  desert 
him. 

Let  your  first  step,  then,  in  that  discipline  which  is  to  give 
you  decision  of  character,  be  the  heroic  determination  to  be 
honest  men,  and  to  preserve  this  character  through  every 
vicissitude  of  fortune,  and  in  every  relation  which  connects 
you  with  society.  I  do  not  use  this  phrase  "honest  men"  in 
the  narrow  sense,  merely,  of  meeting  your  pecuniary  engage- 
ments, and  paying  your  debts;  for  this  the  common  pride  of 
gentlemen  will  constrain  you  to  do.  I  use  it  in  its  larger 
sense  of  discharging  all  your  duties,  both  public  and  private, 
both  open  and  secret,  with  the  most  scrupulous,  Heaven- 


WILLIAM   WIRT.  359 

attesting  integrity;  in  that  sense,  farther,  which  drives  from 
the  bosom  all  little,  dark,  crooked,  sordid,  debasing  consid- 
erations of  self,  and  substitutes  in  their  place  a  bolder, 
loftier  and  nobler  spirit;  one  that  will  dispose  you  to  con- 
sider yourselves  as  born,  not  so  much  for  yourselves  as  for 
your  country  and  your  fellow-creatures,  and  which  will  lead 
you  to  act  on  every  occasion  sincerely,  justly,  generously, 
magnanimously. 

There  is  a  morality  on  a  larger  scale,  perfectly  consistent 
with  a  just  attention  to  your  own  affairs,  which  it  would  be 
a  height  of  folly  to  neglect;  a  generous  expansion,  a  proud 
elevation  and  conscious  greatness  of  character,  which  is  the 
best  preparation  for  a  decided  course,  in  every  situation  into 
which  you  can  be  thrown;  and  it  is  to  this  high  and  noble  tone 
of  character  that  I  would  have  you  to  aspire.  I  would  not 
have  you  resemble  those  weak  and  meager  streamlets,  which 
lose  their  direction  at  every  petty  impediment  that  presents 
itself,  and  stop,  and  turn  back,  and  creep  around,  and  search 
out  every  little  channel  through  which  they  may  wind  their 
sickly  and  feeble  course.  Nor  yet  would  I  have  you  resem- 
ble the  headlong  torrent  that  carries  havoc  in  its  mad  ca- 
reer. But  I  would  have  you  like  the  ocean,  that  noblest 
emblem  of  majestic  decision,  which,  in  the  calmest  hour,  still 
heaves  its  resistless  might  of  waters  to  the  shore,  filling  the 
Heavens,  day  and  night,  with  the  echoes  of  its  sublime 
declaration  of  independence,  and  tossing  and  sporting  on  its 
bed  with  an  imperial  consciousness  of  strength  that  laughs  at 
opposition.  It  is  this  depth,  and  weight,  and  power,  and  purity 
of  character,  that  I  would  have  you  resemble;  and  I  would 
have  you,  like  the  waters  of  the  ocean,  to  become  the  purer 
by  your  own  action. 


360  MODERN  AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

ON  THE  $50,000,000  APPROPRIATION. 


C.    H.    GROSVENOR, 
(Of   Ohio.) 

(In  the  House  of  Representatives,   1898.) 

"Saxon  and  Norman  and  Dane  are  we, 
But  we  are  all  of  us  Danes  in  our  welcome  to  thee." 

Thus  spake  the  heart  of  the  great  British  public  when  the 
daughter  of  the  Sea  King  came  to  her  shores.  Democrat  and 
Populist  and  Republican  are  we,  but  we  are  all  true  to  the  flag 
of  our  country  to-day.  No  more  inspiring  picture  can  be 
witnessed  anywhere  on  earth  than  the  demonstrations  which 
we  have  seen  during  the  last  thirty,  sixty  and  ninety  days  of 
the  power  of  a  great  people,  a  free  government,  not  only  to 
stand  for  the  flag  of  their  country,  the  unity  of  the  govern- 
ment, the  supremacy  of  the  constitution,  but  for  their  dignity 
and  calm  exhibit  in  the  face  of  the  world. 

The  American  people  have  had  a  great  deal  to  stir  the 
blood  of  enthusiasm,  a  great  deal  to  carry  them  off  the  feet 
of  their  calm  judgment,  but  the  picture  that  the  world  has 
seen  is  the  picture  of  a  nation  calmly  studying  every  ques- 
tion as  it  arose,  and  as  step  by  step,  danger  seemed  to  come, 
threatening  with  its  dark  frowning  face,  all  distinctions  fled 
away.  It  will  be  worth  more  than  $50,000,000  to  the  American 
people  to  know  that  the  great  heart  of  this  people  is  a  unit 
in  favor  of  the  government. 

I  have  long  thought  that  it  was  possible  that  the  war 
might  be  a  benefit  to  our  country  in  this  direction,  but  the 
demonstration  of  the  last  thirty  days  and  its  culmination, 
which  is  to  take  place  in  the  capitol  to-day  ^,nd  to-morrow, 
takes  the  place  in  the  judgment  of  mankind  of  war  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  unity  of  a  mighty  nation.  How  magnificently  has 
this  duty  been  approached  and  performed!  A  doubt  about 
the  American  people!  Hesitation  about  the  character  of  the 
Executive!  A  man  who  marched  and  fought  at  Antietam  and 
in  the  valley  of  Virginia;  who  followed  the  fortunes  of  Sher- 
idan in  the  great  charge  of  that  memorable  campaign,  who 
stood  from  his  boyhood  of  18  years  to  his  manhood  in  the  face 


C.    H.    GROSVENOR.  361 

and  fire  of  battle — does  anybody  doubt  where  his  loyalty  is, 
where  his  patriotism  is,  where  his  courage  is?  Calmly  and 
deliberately  has  he  weighed  every  measure.  Calmly  and  de- 
liberately has  he  considered  every  circumstance  and  calmly 
and  deliberately  behind  him  have  stood  75,000,000  of  people 
confident  in  him,  confident  in  the  patriotism  of  the  people, 
true  and  faithful  to  the  loyalty  that  has  come  to  us  from  a 
thousand  battlefields  that  saved  the  Union. 

How  magnificent  it  is!  I  have  longed  to  live  until  I  knew 
that  this  people  was  a  united  people.  I  have  always  felt  that 
the  actions  of  1861  to  1865  were  poorly  done,  that  the  blood 
was  ill  spilled,  if  at  the  end  of  this  long  period  we  had  not  a 
united  nation.  Thank  God,  I  have  lived  to  see  the  hour 
come,  the  day  dawn  and  universal  loyalty  the  watchword  of 
every  man,  woman  and  child. 


862  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 

PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  PUBLIC  PRESS. 


CHARLES  EMORY  SMITH. 

The  sentiment  of  patriotism  naturally  enshrines  itself  in 
the  supreme  crisis  of  its  trial  and  triumph,  and  in  its  su- 
preme personal  types.  With  Americans  it  turns  instinctively 
to  the  two  master  epochs  and  the  two  master  heroes  of  our 
history.  Each  epoch  developed  illustrious  leaders.  The  pe- 
riod of  the  Civil  War  and  its  preparatory  struggle  was  re- 
splendent with  its  matchless  group  of  marvelous  men  who 
have  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  world.  There  was 
Seward,  with  his  long  leadership,  his  acute  vision  and  his 
brilliant  statecraft;  there  was  Douglas,  who  was  the  Rupert 
of  debate  and  the  stormy  petrel  of  our  most  turbulent  poli- 
tics; there  was  Grant,  with  his  conquering  sword  in  the  field, 
and  Stevens,  with  his  naming  fire  in  the  forum.  But  out  of 
Illinois,  untrained,  untutored,  except  in  the  self-communion 
of  his  own  great  soul,  came  the  God-given  Chieftain  to  whom 
the  acknowledged  princes  of  statesmanship  and  oratory  were 
fain  to  yield  the  sceptre  of  supremacy,  and  whose  serene 
faith  and  sublime  inspiration  and  almost  divine  prescience 
have  not  been  surpassed  in  all  the  long  and  glowing  story  of 
liberty's  march  and  humanity's  progress.  And  thus  in  the 
incarnation  of  patriotism  we  offer  our  never-ending  homage 
at  the  shrine  of  Lincoln,  the  savior  of  the  Union. 

The  love  of  country  is  a  flame  that  burns  in  every  true 
heart.  But  country  is  not  simply  rock  and  dell,  or  blooming 
field  or  stately  structure;  it  is  not  alone  material  or  geo- 
graphical. It  was  not  the  glory  of  the  Parthenon  that  kindled 
the  passion  of  the  Athenian.  It  was  not  the  grandeur  of  the 
towering  Alps  that  moved  Winkelried  to  gather  in  his  breast 
the  sheaf  of  Austrian  spears,  and  through  his  own  sacrifice 
make  a  triumphal  pathway  for  his  struggling  compatriots.  It 
was  not  the  gleaming  heather,  or  the  bonnie  blue  lakes  of 
the  highlands,  loved  as  they  were,  which  fired  "the  Scots  who 
ha'  with  Wallace  bled."  The  inspiration  of  these  glorious 
deeds  was  the  love  of  liberty  and  the  pride  of  principle  which 
found  their  home  in  the  mountain  fastness  and  in  the  classic 
grove.  The  Greece  and  Switzerland  and  Scotland  which  held 


CHARLES   EMORY    SMITH.  363 

the  devotion  of  their  sons  were  not  the  outward  symbol  but 
the  inward  life  and  the  historic  character  which  stamped  their 
attributes  and  their  aspirations. 

And  so  our  country,  in  its  true  significance,  means  its 
essence  and  not  simply  its  substance.  The  American  Republic 
is  not  domain;  it  is  not  power;  it  is  not  wealth;  it  is  em- 
bodied liberty  regulated  by  law;  it  is  liberty  resting  upon 
organized  institutions,  through  which  society  and  civilization 
may  blossom  into  their  fullest  and  fairest  flower. 


364  MODERN   AMERICAN   SPEAKER. 


THE  CHILD  OF  THE  ALAMO. 

l»GUY  M.  BRYAN. 

In  the  session  of  the  Texas  Legislature  of  1852  a  bill  was 
introduced  for  an  appropriation  of  money  to  care  for  and 
educate  the  child  of  Lieutenant  Dickinson,  who  fell  in  the 
Alamo,  Several  members  spoke  in  opposition  to  the  bill, 
claiming  that  as  Texas  was  deeply  in  debt  no  public  money 
should  be  appropriated  to  private  parties.  There  was  a  rule 
of  the  House  that  when  the  ayes  and  noes  were  called  a 
member,  before  voting,  could  give  reasons  for  his  vote.  When 
the  name  of  Hon.  Guy  M.  Bryan  was  called,  he  spoke  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  intended^  Mr.  Speaker,  to  remain  silent  on  this  occasion, 
but  silence  now  would  be  a  reproach,  when  to  speak  is  a 
duty.  No  one  has  raised  a  voice  in  behalf  of  this  orphan 
child — several  have  spoken  against  her  claim.  I  rise,  sir,  an 
advocate  of  no  common  cause.  Liberty  was  its  foundation — 
heroism  and  martyrdom  have  Consecrated  it.  I  speak  for  the 
Orphan  Child  of  the  Alamo!  No  orphan  children  of  fallen 
patriots  can  send  a  similar  petition  to  this  House — none  other 
can  say,  I  am  the  Child  of  the  Alamo! 

"Well  do  I  remember  the  consternation  that  spread  through- 
out the  land  when  the  sad  tidings  reached  our  ears  that  the 
Alamo  had  fallen!  It  was  here  that  a  gallant  few,  'the 
bravest  of  the  brave,'  threw  themselves  between  the  enemy 
and  the  settlements,  determined  'never  to  surrender  nor  re- 
treat.' They  redeemed  their  pledge  to  Texas  with. the  for- 
feit of  their  lives — they  fell,  the  chosen  sacrifice  to  Texas  free- 
dom. Texas,  unapprised  of  the  approach  of  the  invader,  was 
sleeping  in  fancied  security,  when  the  Attila  of  the  South 
was  near.  Infuriated  by  the  resistance  of  Travis  and  his 
noble  band,  he  halted  his  whole  army  beneath  the  wall  and 
rolled  wave  after  wave  of  his  numerous  host  against  these 
stern  battlements  of  freedom.  In  vain  he  strove:  the  flag  of 
Liberty,  the  flag  of  1824,  still  streamed  out  upon  the  breeze, 
and  floated  proudly  from  the  outer  wall;  maddened,  he  pitched 
his  tents  and  reared  his  batteries,  and  finally  stormed  and 
took  a  black  and  ruined  mass — the  blood-stained  walls  of  the 


GUY    M.    BRYAN,  365 

Alamo — the  noble,  the  martyred  spirits  of  every  one  of  its 
defenders  had  already  taken  their  flight  to  another  fortress 
not  made  with  hands. 

"This  detention  of  the  enemy  enabled  Texas  to  recuperate 
her  energies,  to  prepare  for  that  struggle  in  which  freedom 
was  the  prize,  and  slavery  the  forfeit.  It  enabled  her  to 
assemble  upon  the  Colorado  that  gallant  band  which  event- 
ually triumphed  upon  the  plains  of  San  Jacinto,  and  rolled 
back  the  tide  of  war  upon  the  ruthless  invader. 

"But  for  this  stand  at  the  Alamo,  Texas  would  have  been 
desolated  to  the  banks  of  the  Sabine.  Then,  sir,  in  view  of 
these  facts,  I  ask  of  this  House  to  vote  the  pittance  prayed 
for.  To  whom?  To  the  only  living  Texan  witness  (save  her 
mother)  of  this  awful  tragedy — 'the  bloodiest  picture  in  the 
book  of  time,'  and  the  bravest  act  that  ever  swelled  the 
annals  of  any  country. 

"Grant  this  boon!  She  claims  it  as  a  christened  child  of 
the  Alamo,  baptized  in  the  blood  of  a  Travis,  a  Bowie,  a 
Crockett,  and  a  Bonham! 

"It  would  be  a  shame  to  Texas  to  turn  her  away.  Give 
her  what  she  asks,  in  order  that  she  may  be  educated  and 
become  a  worthy  child  of  the  State,  and  take  that  position 
in  society  to  which  she  is  entitled  by  the  illustrious  name  of 
her  martyred  father — made  illustrious  because  he  fell  in  the 
Alamo." 

—THE  END— 


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SEP      6    1832 

MAY  6 


* 


MAY  13  1S 


" 


MAY  1 1 1SG3 


;VED 

r.-;Y  o  9  ic:s 

CIRCULATION  DEPT 

-> 


LD  21-20m-6,'32 


YC  01466 


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